Don't Rush to Silence Them

The first month after moving into the Long Island Estate passed peacefully and regularly, as though everything were unfolding according to the perfect script Lynn had planned.

By day, sunlight filled the Manor.

John would play with Buddy on the lawn or study a range of complicated subjects under private tutors-scholars who had passed Vought International's strict political vetting.

Meanwhile, Lynn handled official business in the spacious oak study on the second floor.

At night, the security guards and servants monitoring them would see a heartwarming picture of a loving father and dutiful son:

The young director and the blond little boy sat on the carpet building Lego sets or watching boring soap operas together.

Everything looked flawless.

Even the frequency of the big boss Edgar's probing had visibly decreased.

But late that night, a rare early-summer downpour swept over New York.

Gales lashed Manhattan's glass curtain walls with dense sheets of rain.

Vought Tower, one hundred floors above ground.

Stan Edgar stood before the floor-to-ceiling windows, watching lightning flash through the night sky outside.

Even in weather like this, he stood as straight as a ruler.

In the shadows of the office stood a man entirely enclosed in a pitch-black combat suit, without so much as a gap in his mask.

Vought International's most mysterious trump card, a founding member of the Seven, and Edgar's most loyal cleaner-Black Noir.

"Our contact in customs sent word. Two 'ghosts' with no entry records came ashore in Flushing, Queens, three hours ago."

Edgar picked up the coffee on his desk, his tone as flat as though discussing tomorrow's weather. "Two years ago, you took the Yasakani Blood Jade from that old man named Takeda in San Francisco and destroyed their West Coast base while you were at it. It seems those old-guard remnants from the East still haven't learned their lesson."

Black Noir said nothing, merely nodding extremely slowly, a flicker of icy killing intent passing through the eyes beneath his mask.

He touched the specially made short blade at his waist, forged from an alloy capable of cutting through a Supe's skin.

"Don't rush to silence them."

Edgar raised a hand, stopping Black Noir as he prepared to leave, an inscrutable, cold smile curling his lips.

"I've put that Blood Jade inside Lynn's body. It's the only leash we have on that 'ultimate weapon.'"

"Since these Onmyōji have come all this way looking for their sacred relic, let them try their luck on Long Island. I want to see whether the tricks these people play with spirits and gods can actually pose a substantial threat to Lynn;

I'm even more interested in seeing how our little Chosen One, who has always behaved so meekly, reacts when faced with an unknown supernatural power like this."

Edgar turned to look at Black Noir. "Lie low around the Manor's perimeter. If Lynn really can't hold out, or John can't handle it, then intervene. Remember, Lynn's life is valuable. He can't die yet."

Black Noir bowed slightly and blended silently into the office's shadows like a drop of ink.

At the same time.

In an underground warehouse in Queens, New York, ostensibly selling seafood imported from Japan.

The air was thick with incense and a faint smell of blood.

A thin man wearing a pure black kimono, his long hair hanging over his shoulders, sat cross-legged on a tatami mat.

His face was so pale it was almost translucent, but his eyes were as cold and sinister as a venomous snake's.

Before him lay a compass covered in vermilion runes.

At the center of the Compass lay a severed finger stained with dried blood.

It was the token Takeda had desperately had a Shikigami deliver to Japan two years earlier, after John crushed both his legs with his bare hands in the basement.

"Tonight, we'll have an answer, both for avenging Uncle-Master Takeda and for the Blood Jade's whereabouts."

The man in the kimono murmured under his breath.

He bit through the skin of his index finger and dripped a drop of blood onto the center of the compass.

"Humm-"

The runes on the compass instantly lit up with an eerie dark-red glow.

Then the man in the kimono drew a piece of white talisman paper cut into the shape of a bird from his sleeve and gently placed it on the compass.

His hands swiftly formed an extremely complicated ritual seal as he recited an obscure, incomprehensible incantation.

"Blood-Seeking Technique... go, find it!"

The moment the white paper bird touched the red light, it seemed to come alive!

Black feathers sprouted along the paper's edges, and its body rapidly swelled. In the blink of an eye, it became an enormous crow with a wingspan of over a meter, its entire body exuding an ominous black aura.

The crow let out a shrill cry, passed straight through the warehouse's solid concrete roof, and sped toward Long Island through the pouring rain.

Long Island Estate.

Lynn sat in the leather swivel chair in his study, reading Vought International's Top Secret File on "supernatural incidents" by the light of a vintage desk lamp.

"Boom!"

A blinding bolt of lightning streaked past the window, followed by deafening thunder.

At the very instant the thunder sounded, Lynn suddenly felt a stabbing pain in his chest without warning!

"Hiss-"

Lynn sucked in a sharp breath and clutched his chest.

Ever since merging with his body, the Yasakani Blood Jade had only given off a gentle warmth. Now, like a red-hot branding iron, it pulsed and burned wildly beside his heart!

Even through his shirt, Lynn could see an eerie red light faintly shining beneath the skin of his chest.

"What's going on..."

Lynn's face paled, and a sheen of cold sweat instantly formed on his forehead.

The Blood Jade had never shown such an aggressive reaction before.

This didn't seem like it was protecting him. It seemed more like it was... answering some distant summons!

At the same time.

In the child's bedroom next door.

John, who had been sleeping soundly, suddenly opened his eyes.

In the darkness, his clear blue pupils abruptly contracted.

His super brain instantly filtered out the thunder, rain, and wind outside, along with the footsteps of the security guards patrolling the downstairs hallway.

His super hearing had picked up an extremely faint, strange sound that absolutely did not belong to this Manor.

It wasn't a human heartbeat or the sound of machinery running.

It sounded like... the flutter of paper rubbing violently in a gale, mixed with some deeply unsettling sound of rushing air.

John sat up in bed without a sound.

Rather than turn on the light, he tiptoed to the floor-to-ceiling window and opened a narrow gap in the curtains, his blue eyes instantly switching to thermal imaging and X-ray vision.

The high-definition cameras around the Manor's perimeter dutifully rotated in the rainy night.

Security guards in raincoats walked across the lawn with police dogs on leashes. Everything was normal.

But John's gaze shifted upward.

Above the Manor's second-floor eaves, less than five meters from the window of Lynn's study, a mass of "something" hovered in the wind and rain.

In his thermal vision, the thing had no heat, like a lifeless block of ice.

But to the naked eye, it was an enormous crow that almost blended into the night.

The crow had bypassed every one of Vought International's high-tech aerial alarm systems. Even the police dogs below hadn't detected its presence.

It simply stared fixedly at the window of Lynn's study, its pitch-black eyes flickering with the same red light as Lynn's chest.

John's gaze instantly turned cold.

He didn't know what this crow that defied the laws of physics was.

But he could clearly sense a malicious aura emanating from it.

John gently pressed his fingers against the glass.

Deep within his pupils, a faint dark-red light began to gather.

If he wanted, a beam of Heat Vision faster than lightning could vaporize that cold thing into nothingness in a thousandth of a second.

But just as he was about to act, Lynn's teaching flashed through his mind: "A true hero isn't a brute who reveals his power the moment he encounters danger. Learn to observe. Learn to solve problems at the smallest cost."

The red light in his eyes gradually faded.

John withdrew his hand.

He watched the eerie crow circle outside the window for a moment, seemingly confirming its target's location, before turning into a black streak and merging back into the downpour, flying toward New York City.

"Not technology. No heartbeat."

John stared in the direction where the crow had disappeared. There was no fear on his delicate face; instead, he showed the excitement of someone who had spotted a new toy.

"Kind of interesting."

He turned toward the door and, without even putting on shoes, silently pushed open the door to Lynn's study in his bare feet.

"Lynn, did you not sleep well?"

The little boy looked at the pale-faced Lynn clutching his chest, his voice filled with flawlessly feigned obedience and concern.