Rei stepped into Kage's dimly lit penthouse, the heavy wooden door clicking shut behind him. Sebastian had let him in without a word, as if expecting him despite the late hour. The air smelled faintly of whiskey and cologne, expensive scents mingling with an undercurrent of tension that seemed to permeate the space.

  The main living area was bathed in shadows, the only illumination coming from ambient city lights filtering through the floor-to-ceiling windows and a few scattered lamps with low, bluish bulbs. The modern furnishings—all sleek lines and minimalist design—created abstract silhouettes in the half-darkness.

  But what immediately caught his attention were the three women tied to chairs in the center of the room, their bodies trembling, eyes filled with terror. They wore nothing but lingerie, their muffled cries echoing as they struggled against their bindings. Duct tape covered their mouths, preventing them from screaming, but the fear in their wide eyes spoke volumes.

  A shadow loomed over him.

  Kage entered the room, his presence dominating the space. His polished shoes clicked against the marble floor as he approached, each step deliberate and measured. Without warning, he stepped on Rei's shadow, instantly freezing him in place—a demonstration of power disguised as casual movement.

  "No more being passive, brat," Kage said, adjusting his shades with a smirk. "During our first bout, you had immense strength and reflexes, but you were boring. It wasn't until you feared for your life that your eyes burned bright red, changing instantly. Haikito told me you were an emotionless runt with no guidance, but that wasn't the truth, was it?"

  Rei's jaw tightened, unable to move, forced to listen. The shadow binding technique was something Kage hadn't demonstrated before—another card revealed only when needed.

  "Your eyes change based on your emotions," Kage continued, circling around Rei like a predator assessing its prey. "Fear brought out strength. So what happens when we trigger something else?"

  Rei's stomach twisted as the implication became clear. Kage wasn't just testing him—he was experimenting on him, trying to catalyze whatever power lay dormant within him.

  Kage gestured lazily toward the bound women. "Escape my grasp and untie these women... or I kill them in front of you."

  Rei's blood ran cold.

  The women began screaming behind their gags, their terrified wails muffled but unmistakable. Their bodies thrashed against the restraints, chairs rocking as they desperately tried to free themselves. Rei struggled against Kage's shadow grip, but the technique kept him rooted in place, unable to move a single muscle below his neck.

  "Kage, stop this," Rei growled, his voice low and dangerous. "You wouldn't—"

  "You must not know me, son." Kage chuckled darkly.

  His shadow detached from him, forming a towering humanoid figure beside him. The shadow-construct stood nearly eight feet tall, its features vaguely reminiscent of Kage's but distorted, more monstrous. With a swift motion, it drove its fist through one of the women's chest.

  Blood splattered across the polished floor. Her eyes turned lifeless, glazing over as the shadow withdrew its arm. Her body slumped forward, still tied to the chair, head hanging at an unnatural angle.

  The remaining two women screamed in horror, the sound partially muted by their gags but conveying their terror with disturbing clarity.

  Rei's breath caught in his throat. His body shook with effort as he tried to break free. "STOP!" he roared, his voice cracking from the sheer force of it.

  Kage's shadow turned toward the second woman, grasping her head in both hands. Slowly, it began crushing her skull, applying pressure with methodical cruelty.

  Blood trickled down her face from her nose, ears, and the corners of her eyes. Her screams became piercing shrieks of agony, the sound nightmarish even through the tape covering her mouth.

  Rei struggled, pulling at his own shadow as if he could break free through sheer will. His muscles strained to their limit, tendons standing out on his neck, breath ragged and harsh, but Kage's grip held firm.

  "STOP IT!" Rei pleaded, his voice hoarse with desperation, panic rising in his chest.

  The woman's screams became gurgled, wet sounds—until her head burst like a watermelon. Blood, bone fragments, and brain matter sprayed across the room, some of it splattering across Rei's face.

  In that horrific moment, something fundamentally shifted within Rei. The cold detachment that had defined his existence for as long as he could remember cracked and fell away. These women—innocent people caught in whatever twisted game Kage was playing—didn't deserve this. No one did.

  I have to stop him. Even if it kills me, I have to stop this monster.

  There was no calculation in this thought, no weighing of options or logical assessment. Just a pure, burning need to protect those who couldn't protect themselves. To end the madness unfolding before him.

  Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

  Something snapped inside Rei.

  His eyes burned bright red.

  The color wasn't just in his iris—the entire sclera filled with crimson light, glowing in the dimness like twin embers. A new emotion surged through him, overwhelming and all-consuming.

  Anger.

  Not the petty irritation he'd felt at Kage's taunts before, not the frustration at being manipulated by forces beyond his control. This was primal rage—pure, undiluted, incandescent in its intensity.

  The room seemed to darken as his body began to change. His hair flared wildly around him like a lion's mane. His teeth sharpened into points, canines elongating into fangs. His fingers curled into clawed hands, nails lengthening and hardening into deadly points. His breath came out in short, feral bursts that fogged in the air despite the room's warmth.

  Rei stared down at his transformed hands, watching in shock as his fingers elongated into blade-like claws. Is this... me? he thought, barely recognizing his own body as it morphed into something more bestial, more powerful.

  And then, a voice—unfamiliar yet somehow intimately known—whispered through his mind:

  No, brother. This is US.

  The presence vanished as quickly as it had appeared, leaving Rei with a momentary sense of not being alone in his own body. But before he could process the implications, his focus returned to the immediate threat before him.

  Kage grinned, feeling the shift in the air. "There it is." His voice carried genuine satisfaction, like a scientist whose experiment had finally yielded results.

  Rei's entire body tensed, muscles bulging beneath his clothes, veins standing out on his neck and arms—then—

  SNAP.

  The hold on his shadow shattered.

  The sound was physical, like ice breaking on a frozen lake. The shadow binding technique that had held him immobile simply failed, unable to contain the power now coursing through him.

  Rei lunged at Kage in a blind rage, his speed unnatural, leaving afterimages in the air behind him.

  Kage's shadow countered, throwing a punch at Rei's chest. But—

  Rei vanished.

  In a blink, he was behind Kage, clawed hand raised to strike.

  Kage smirked. Expected. He twisted his body, grappling Rei into a full nelson, locking his arms behind his head with practiced efficiency.

  "That's it, brat," Kage whispered, his grip ironclad despite Rei's newfound strength. "Show me your rage."

  Rei let out a feral roar, his veins bulging, his entire body thrashing like a caged beast. The sound was barely human—more animal than man, filled with a fury that seemed bottomless.

  Kage's shadow moved toward them, forming a spear, preparing to impale Rei's heart.

  The strike landed.

  Pain shot through Rei's chest. His vision blurred. Darkness swallowed him.

  Then—

  "Sebastian. Rewind 15 seconds. NOW."

  Sebastian, watching from the corner, calmly clasped his hands.

  450 frames rewound.

  Rei gasped, finding himself back in Kage's grasp. His mind reeled—

  What the hell just happened?

  He saw the shadow spear approaching him—

  He remembered dying.

  The sensation of the spear piercing his heart, the coldness spreading through his body, the darkness claiming him—it was all there in his memory, though it hadn't happened yet in this timeline.

  His breathing hitched, his vision spinning. The rage returned, redoubled by the disorientation of experiencing his own death.

  Kage grinned. "There you go, Vessel. Make the smart decision."

  This time—

  Instead of attacking Kage, Rei ripped through the bindings of the last woman. He cut the tape from her mouth, untied her hands, and lifted her over his shoulder.

  He vanished into another room, moving so fast that not even Kage's shadow had time to react. Gently, he set the woman down on a couch, his transformed hands careful not to harm her despite their razor-sharp appearance.

  "Stay here," he growled, his voice deeper, rougher than normal. "I'll find a way to defeat him."

  The rage continued to burn within him, a furnace of emotion that felt both foreign and somehow right. Normally, such matters would have been beneath his concern—the troubles of others had always seemed distant, unrelated to his empty existence. But now, seeing the terror in these women's eyes, witnessing the casual cruelty Kage was capable of... something had changed.

  Haikito said I'm the vessel for everyone, he thought, the words taking on new meaning. If I have this power, shouldn't I use it to protect those who can't protect themselves?

  His clawed hands clenched and unclenched as he struggled to maintain control over his anger. This power—whatever it was—felt wild, dangerous, but also like something that had always been a part of him, waiting to be awakened.

  I'll kill Kage for this, he thought with a clarity that surprised him. I'll tear him apart for what he's done.

  He turned back toward the doorway, ready to confront the assassin—

  The woman's breath had calmed. Strangely, her expression had shifted from terror to... amusement?

  She smiled.

  "Congrats, brat. You pass the test."

  Rei froze, his red eyes flickering with confusion, his deadly momentum halted by those unexpected words. "What?"

  She plucked a strand of her hair—

  A duplicate of herself appeared beside her, identical in every detail.

  "This was a test," she admitted. "We didn't know what Kage had planned, but I used my Concept to duplicate those women beforehand."

  Rei's breathing was still heavy, his transformed state persisting. The revelation that the women weren't actually killed should have calmed him, but the rage continued to burn within him. The memory of what he'd witnessed—even if staged—and his own helplessness to stop it fueled something deeper, something that had been awakened and wouldn't easily be put back to sleep.

  He looked down at his still-transformed hands, the deadly claws where his fingers should be. This is what I'm capable of? The rage was becoming something he could feel, almost like a physical presence sharing his body.

  Kage walked in, hands in his pockets, still smirking. "Well, look who it is. Captain Save-a-Hoe."

  The room chuckled.

  Rei didn't. His hands still shook, his vision red. But for some reason... he didn't pass out this time. The anger remained, controlled but present, a burning coal in his chest rather than the wild inferno of moments before.

  Kage rubbed his chin, studying Rei with newfound interest. "I think I'm beginning to understand you, Vessel."

  Kage crouched in front of Rei, tilting his head. "Your eyes aren't just reacting to emotions—they're unlocking something sealed. And if you're unlocking something..."

  His smirk widened.

  "That means someone sealed it away in the first place."

  Rei's mind throbbed—

  Then, a voice whispered in his head, clearer than before.

  I will show myself soon, brother. Just you wait.

  The presence vanished, leaving an eerie silence behind.

  Rei's breath hitched. His vision dimmed.

  Who... just called me their brother?

  Before he could think further, his body collapsed.

  Sebastian, still at the entrance, bowed slightly. "Shall I clean the main room, Master Kage? The blood will cause suspicion."

  Kage exhaled dramatically. "Yeah, yeah. Destroy those clone bodies. I don't kill for free."

  Sebastian nodded. "As you wish."

  Rei's unconscious form twitched slightly, his mind still lingering on the voice.

  Why are there voices inside my head?