Akagiri's ruthless resolve (Part 1)

Yellow Hair's screams echoed through the deserted street like fabric being torn apart, so piercing they made everyone's ears ache.

He clamped both hands over his wounded left eye. Blood streamed between his fingers like beads spilling from a broken string, ran down his cheeks, and dripped onto the concrete, quickly pooling into a broad, dark-red stain.

He rolled wildly on the ground, his body convulsing with pain. His once-flamboyant hairstyle had become a disheveled mess, leaving him looking wretched and pitiful. Chi Tong's expression never changed.

He showed neither pity for Yellow Hair's suffering nor hesitation over having hurt him. He merely watched Yellow Hair struggle in agony, as calmly as an uninvolved bystander.

Sunlight fell across him, yet seemed unable to warm the icy aura surrounding him. His mismatched eyes held nothing but undisturbed indifference.

"You dared provoke me like that, so you must bear the consequences!"

Chi Tong spoke softly, but his voice cut clearly through Yellow Hair's screams and reached everyone present.

There was no anger in his tone, only a matter-of-fact calm, as though stabbing the other man's eye had been nothing more than a trivial chore.

As he spoke, he stepped forward and reached out, unhesitatingly grasping the fountain pen lodged in Yellow Hair's left eye.

Without a moment's hesitation, he yanked the sharp pen straight out.

The sound of it tearing free of flesh rang out again, even more grating than when it had gone in.

Yellow Hair's screams instantly rose an octave.

"Aaaah! My eye! It hurts!"

"Y-you dare do this to me!"

"Aaaah!" Yellow Hair's voice was so hoarse it was almost unintelligible, filled with both the anguish of excruciating pain and incredulous rage.

He had never imagined that this frail-looking boy would actually dare be so brutal with him.

That