Coercion

The night was as dark as ink. Thick clouds swallowed the last glimmer of starlight, hanging heavy over the primeval forest. The damp air was stifling with the promise of rain, and even the insects had fallen quiet. A torrential downpour was imminent.

Class D's camp had fallen asleep. Only the dying embers of the campfire flickered in the wind. Kazama In slipped silently out of his tent, a ghost merging with the night. Koenji Rokusuke was already waiting in the appointed patch of shadow, his magnificent blond hair subdued in the darkness.

"Arbiter, it seems the storm will provide tonight's opening act," Koenji murmured, his voice low and tinged with the excitement of a hunter before the chase. "Have you confirmed the direction of Gray Owl's nest?"

Kazama In raised his wrist. On the screen of his specially designed watch, a faint but steady dot blinked in the northwest corner of the map. It was the signal from a miniature tracker he had planted inside Shadow by special means, which the clever bird had managed to pull out early and hide near Gray Owl's temporary nest! He nodded, his voice cold. "I'm leaving Class B to you. Blood Claw may be lurking nearby, planning to cause trouble or target Ichinose. Protect them, especially her."

"Oh-ho-ho, don't worry, Brother." Koenji gave an exaggerated, elegant hand-over-heart salute, but his gaze was sharp as a blade. "Protecting the lovely Miss Honami and enjoying Blood Claw's brutish aesthetic struggle beneath the moonlight—if there is any—will both be feasts not to be missed! Good luck, Arbiter!" Before he had even finished speaking, his tall figure had already darted toward Class B's camp like a shadow blending into the night wind, swift and silent.

Kazama In took a deep breath of the damp, earthy air and fixed his dark eyes on the tracker's signal. The next second, he moved!

Without a single wasted motion, Kazama In seemed to lose all weight, becoming a blurred shadow among the tangled trees. His steps were so light he seemed to tread on clouds, each landing precisely on a dry rock, a thick tree root, or dense moss, avoiding dead leaves and soft mud that might make a sound. He darted between massive trunks, pushing off them for momentum, as agile as an ape. He moved and leaped silently beneath the lower canopy, several meters above the ground! The lush branches rushed past him, but the wind he stirred couldn't so much as ruffle the silver-white strands over his forehead. Raindrops began to fall sporadically, dampening his clothes and hair, but they did nothing to slow or hinder his precision. Rainwater trickled down his stern profile like icy tears, lending him an even more menacing air.

He suppressed his breathing until it was almost imperceptible. His heartbeat was steady and slow, while all his senses were heightened to their limits. His ears sifted through the rustle of raindrops hitting leaves, the distant murmur of a stream, and... the tracker's signal, drawing closer and closer. The dot on his wrist screen nearly overlapped with the one marking his own position!

The target was a hollow in a rock face, concealed behind enormous vines and ferns and forming a natural alcove that offered shelter from the rain. Kazama In slid down a tree trunk as silently as a gecko and landed in the shadow of a giant tree about ten meters from the alcove's entrance. Holding his breath, he peered through layers of rain and gaps in the foliage, fixing his gaze precisely on the indistinct figure inside—Gray Owl! He had his back to the entrance and seemed to be organizing his equipment. A waterproof backpack and a long, rectangular weapons case sat beside him.

Kazama In was like the most patient of hunters, his body taut as a drawn bowstring, his muscles coiled beneath his damp, cold clothes with explosive strength. He slowly drew the poisoned tactical knife from the back of his waist. Its cold blade reflected no light in the rainy night. All he needed was the perfect angle, one silent ambush...

Just then!

"Beep, beep, beep—!" A sharp, sudden electronic alert blared from the specially designed watch on Kazama In's wrist! The sound cut through the quiet rainy night, jarring and loud!

It was an emergency communication request from Koenji! Something unexpected had evidently happened on Class B's side!

Kazama In's pupils contracted. Alarm bells rang in his mind! He cut off the communication instantly, but it was already too late!

Gray Owl spun around like a startled viper. His eyes, glinting coldly in the dark, swept toward the source of the sound like searchlights! The instant the noise rang out, Kazama In had slipped behind the tree like melting wax, shrinking into the shadows and suppressing his presence to the limit until he blended with the damp bark and darkness.

But Gray Owl was clearly no ordinary opponent. He didn't rush out blindly. Instead, he drew a compact submachine gun fitted with a silencer from his waist in a flash! He didn't point it toward where Kazama In was hiding. Without hesitation, he aimed it in the opposite direction from Class D's camp—toward another area where students might be active, such as a nearby patrol point or resource site belonging to another class!

A cold voice, like metal scraping against metal, pierced the rain and reached Kazama In clearly, full of mockery and cruelty:

"Come out, Arbiter. I know it's you. Your little pet is clever, but your teammates... don't seem to know how to behave." Gray Owl's voice was playful, like a cat toying with a mouse. "I'll give you three seconds. If you don't show yourself in that time, I'll empty this magazine in that direction. How many 'innocent' students do you think will suffer because of your 'caution'?"

Kazama In's heart sank. Icy bloodlust churned in his chest, almost tangible! His opponent hadn't pinpointed his location, but had seized his weakness in the most despicable way, using the lives of other possibly innocent students as leverage! He had planned for everything, but hadn't expected Koenji's call to come at such a critical moment—nor had he expected Gray Owl to be so ruthless and cunning!

"Three..." Gray Owl's countdown rang out like a death knell.

Kazama In's fingers tightened around the knife until his knuckles turned white. He could gamble that his opponent wouldn't dare fire and risk causing widespread chaos. But at what cost? He didn't dare gamble! As the Arbiter, his duty was to eliminate threats, not drag innocent people into the fight!

"Two..." The icy number pierced his eardrums like an icicle.

Kazama In took a sharp breath, suppressing his surging rage and murderous intent. He couldn't let anyone die because of him! Absolutely not!

"One!"

Just as Gray Owl was about to pull the trigger—

"Stop." A voice rang out, cold and utterly devoid of human emotion.

Kazama In slowly emerged from behind the giant tree's shadow. Rain streamed down his sharply defined face, and his dark eyes burned like two flames of ice in the darkness as they locked onto the armed figure at the alcove's entrance. He dropped the knife in his hand, letting it sink silently into the soft mud, and raised both hands to show he was unarmed.

Gray Owl looked at his prey, forced out of hiding, and the corner of his mouth curled beneath his mask in a cruel, triumphant smile. He slowly lowered the barrel, but kept his finger on the trigger, ready to raise it at any moment.

"Tsk, tsk, tsk..." He made a string of deeply unpleasant clicking sounds, like a snake flicking its tongue. "Well, well, who do we have here? The legendary Arbiter, the cleaner in the dark, the figure who makes countless targets tremble in fear? And now you're standing here like a lost elementary schooler, driven out by a few 'possible' nobodies?"

He stepped forward into the rain at the edge of the alcove, raising the cold muzzle once more and aiming it squarely at Kazama In's heart.

"So the rumors are true, young master of the Kazama Family." Gray Owl's voice was full of venomous mockery. "You've changed. You've grown weak. You've become... a joke!"

"Is it because of that blonde girl? Ichinose Honami? The dazzling sunshine that even a gutter rat like you, living in the shadows, can't help wanting to get close to?" Gray Owl's words came faster, each one like a poisoned needle. "Or is it because of those so-called classmates of yours? Those weaklings who are like ants in your eyes, needing you, their 'leader,' to protect them?"

"How did your mother die, Kazama In?" Gray Owl's voice rose sharply, turning chilling. "She died right in front of you! Our people crushed her like a bug! Have you forgotten the warmth of her blood splashing across your face?! Your family taught you to kill and to show no mercy. They forged you into the sharpest blade, not so you could babysit your classmates—much less act like a lovesick boy protecting some sunshine girl!"

"You were supposed to be the perfect weapon! The ruler of the shadows!" Gray Owl's taunts reached their peak, tinged with twisted anger and disappointment. "Look at you now! Bound hand and foot by ridiculous 'feelings'! Your judgment clouded by a pointless 'sense of responsibility'! You've even forgotten the most basic rule of the hunter: any sacrifice necessary to eliminate the target is acceptable! And you've abandoned the perfect ambush and walked out like a fool to die, all for a few 'classmates' who might not even exist!"

"Arbiter?" Gray Owl gave a scornful laugh. "Now you deserve to be called... the disgrace of the Kazama Family! A good-for-nothing whose bones have been softened by sentiment!"

The icy raindrops struck Kazama In mercilessly, soaking through his clothes and chilling him to the bone. But colder still were Gray Owl's words, seeping into his ears like poison. The taunts were rusty, blunt knives, repeatedly cutting into the deepest part of him, where contradictions and pain festered—things even he had never fully faced. His mother's blood, his family's expectations, the cold training... collided violently in his mind with Ichinose's radiant smile, Shadow's dependence on his shoulder, and the warm, grateful looks from the people in camp!

His body stood ramrod straight in the rain, like a spear. In the depths of his dark eyes, the twin flames of ice burned more fiercely, as if they might set the cold night ablaze! Disgrace? Weakness? Good-for-nothing? The words seared his nerves like brands. Yet beneath the blazing fury and icy killing intent, something deeper and more resolute was quietly taking shape.

Gray Owl's gun remained trained on him, like the gaze of the Grim Reaper. But now, in Kazama In's eyes, that cold muzzle was the greatest opening his opponent had given him: a flaw born of focusing all his attention on Kazama In, convinced that he had the situation under control.