Tsukiko walked slowly through the grounds of a local shrine. Only a few artificial lights illuminated the main building, and a thick cover of trees blocked most of the light coming from the city. On the path forward, a few occasional circles of LEDs lit the ground in spots with inky black space between them, creating a broken path of light and dark like stepping stones in a river.

  An uncanny and uncomfortable silence washed over her, as Ishikawa's curfew had managed to snuff out all the city sound that would normally manage to pierce through the trees. With each step, Tsukiko's heels crushed the dirt and thin gravel beneath her, only the soft burbling of a small pond accompanying her.

  Tsukiko made it to the final carved stone steps leading up to the main shrine itself, making sure to cleanse herself the best she could as she approached. She felt tense, but ultimately calm, as she came to a stop between the red-orange wood pillars under the black tile roof.

  She moved her mask to the side, as if to show respect and reveal her true face to some divinity. Tsukiko bowed her head and closed her eyes, her hands coming together. Her shoulders rose with a long deep breath and then descended with a slow exhale. She stayed like that for a while as she tried to sort out her thoughts.

  First came a prayer, or a plea, for safety. Even in her own head, her thoughts racing, she struggled to get the words out. She prayed for strength, for resilience, for fortune, and for victory. Tsukiko prayed for the power to defeat a truly insurmountable foe.

  Then, she gave thanks for her health, her triumphs, and her love. Tsukiko laid bare everything she was thankful for, no feelings or words withheld. There were no lies before ones who could see the whole world in one point.

  Tsuki heard the crunching sound of footsteps on gravel behind her. She slowly opened her eyes and turned around. Whoever it was, she could not muster the energy to fight them.

  "Boss." Flowers stood there, robed with her mask pushed to the side.

  "You don't have to call me that." Tsukiko looked at her.

  "It's what I wanna call you." Flowers responded. "They'll call you Izanami, or the Third Knight, or whatever else."

  "...am I really so bad that they'd call me Izanami?" Tsukiko's eyes darted back to the shrine, then to Flowers.

  "They're just trying to act all… holy and righteous." Flowers assured her. "It doesn't mean anything. It's just like Fumi said. They wanted a villain."

  Tsuki let out a sigh. "So, you rounded everyone up?"

  "Yeah. Heard something's going down at a train station a couple blocks away." Flowers laid out her simple plan. " It's a good place to start. Now we're just waiting for your order."

  "Good." Tsuki said.

  Tsukiko approached the donation box, held out her gloved hand, and let about a dozen or more coins fall into it. They audibly bounced and knocked around as they fell deep with its wooden body. It was foolish, but she felt like it'd somehow make her prayers louder, and ultimately easier for them to be heard. There was no basis for it, no real rule, but she hoped that her good deeds would wrap around her and protect her.

  Flowers stood there, watching her, not saying a word or making a sound. When Tsuki turned to her, Flowers's face was drenched in deep, black shadow, only her eyes and vague features visible to her.

  "Paying your respects, boss?" Flowers spoke in an uncharacteristically soft tone.

  Tsuki turned to her, unsure whether she should tell her what she was really doing. She wondered if it was wrong to show such vulnerability to someone she was supposed to lead.

  In the end, Tsukiko let herself be honest. "I'm praying."

  Flowers eased up. "Yeah, I figured."

  She stepped past Tsukiko, coming to a stop and standing before the shrine with clasped hands and a bowed head. Flowers stood there for a moment, then moved to the donation box. She counted a few coins from her own robes, then dropped them in.

  "Alright." She said to herself, then turned to Tsukiko. "We're ready."

  Tsuki nodded, then stopped.

  She hadn't noticed them at first, but dark figures surrounded her at all sides, just beyond the lights of the shrine. They were standing in the dark spaces between the lights, in the river between the stones. They stood there, watching, silently and motionlessly. They waited for her.

  The Shakudos' dark robes had made them almost invisible in the night, and only the glint of gold on their faces gave them away. Tsukiko finally understood why they'd spent all that time wearing them.

  --

  Tsukiko's gang marched down the neon drenched empty streets of the city with Tsukiko and Flowers at the helm. Etsuko was around, somewhere, separated from the rest of the gang, keeping hidden with a small group of Shakudos and scouting the streets ahead, just in case.

  Tsukiko felt a bit uncomfortable with so many gang members surrounding her. Although the Shakudos were small in number, they still formed a menacing wall as they walked together. They were even above her on the rooftops, out of view, but ever present. The rest of the Shakudos moved in a quiet walk through the city, forming a roaming procession meant to intimidate the scattered Themis remnants into submission. Tsuki's fate seemed inescapable now.

  The gang had grown in the few hours she'd been gone. Flowers had spent every moment pursuing Tsukiko's strategy and she managed to bring in a few more former Themis people to their cause. It seemed that Masahiro had done a good job of angering everyone he'd met. That, or Flowers was just as convincing as Tsukiko was.

  These new members brought life and energy back to the once gravely wounded ranks of Sylvie's old gang. The Shakudos were louder, livelier and more eager to fight. Even the jaded veterans had picked up on the new recruits' more joyful attitudes. The sight of it made Tsuki feel reassured in her decision.

  When they turned to her, though, their earnestness turned serious. Tsukiko's presence seemed to get them to straighten their backs and keep their eyes forward. After all, that was a former Knight Himura, and now their boss, Izanami, leading them into battle.

  Tsuki felt pride in the thought that, maybe, her absurd plan of uniting Tokyo's gangs would actually work. In a way, though, she felt that she was being arrogant, and stupid, not much different from Morgan or Masahiro.

  Soon enough, the train station, their goal, came into view. Normally, the station served as a crowded, claustrophobic transport hub, covered in bright lights and an unmistakable glow. That night, it looked about twice as big as it usually did with all the travelers missing, the stops barren, the bus terminals empty, and the bright white lights all turned off.

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  When Tsukiko turned the corner, she stopped dead in her tracks. She'd expected a few gang members causing a scene, maybe a few patrol officers or concerned citizens trying to stop them, but she'd arrived at a crowd of what looked like hundreds. At one end was a large group of protesters trying their best to hold an invisible line, signs in hand, chanting and shouting. At the other end was a smaller group of Themis aggressors, throwing stones and harassing those who stood at the end of that line. Neither side dared break through.

  The Shakudos piled up behind her, eager to move forward into the crowd and fight, but Tsuki herself felt hesitant. The last time she'd been in a situation like that, she'd been forced to run away. Tsuki looked back at Flowers, who put her hand on her shoulder, and she was forced to swallow her fear and step forward into the open.

  A young man had something in his hand, a rock or a brick, and he moved his hand back to throw it at the protesters. Before it could get it into the air, though, Tsukiko got behind him and let out a right hook that struck him in the side. He let out a yelp and he doubled over in pain, his body making a nice thud as he lost his balance and fell to the ground. By the time she looked back up, the other Themis thugs had all turned to look at her, all shocked at the sight of her and her gang.

  Any other day, members of any street gang would've tried their luck at taking a swing at Tsukiko. Her history as a Knight didn't intimidate them, at least not when they came in a group. With the Shakudos behind her, however, they weren't quite as bold.

  The two groups stopped to size each other up, but the Shakudos quickly read their leader's intent and moved forward. As they began to push forward, one of the Shakudos ran past Tsuki and punched some poor stunned Themis kid in the face.

  After that, all hell broke loose. It was a one sided bloodbath, the Shakudos easily overpowered the Themis gang in the chaos. Their push forced most of the Themis memebers against the wall of protesters who were now all too eager to shove them back into the fight.

  As the Themis thugs fell, one of them tried to slip away. Tsukiko watched him as he ran to the doors of the station, tugging on the handles trying to get inside and hide. She approached him from behind, grabbing him by the shoulder.

  In a smooth motion, Tsukiko turned him around and pinned him against the wall. "Where's Masahiro?"

  The man tried to push her away. "Get off of me!"

  "Answer the question." Tsukiko glared at him through the mask.

  "Get your hands off me!" He swatted at her.

  Tsukiko's other hand reached for his throat. "You're not getting away, so quit struggling!"

  The man gagged and coughed.

  Tsukiko kept her grip on his neck loose. "You know who I am, don't you?"

  "I-Izanami?"

  Tsukiko took a deep breath. "So you know I'm not someone you should be running from."

  The man went quiet.

  "There's nothing worth protecting him for."

  "No, you don't--" The man pleaded. "We haven't heard from him in weeks!"

  "You're not lying to me, are you?" Tsuki pushed his face up.

  "N-no! No way!" The man strained. "I don't know anything, honest! None of us do!"

  Tsukiko finally released her grip, letting the man fall back against the wall, then to the ground.

  When she looked back, the crowd had burst into a frenzy, everyone desperately pushing and shoving to get away. Red and blue flashing lights bathed building walls and shined through the crowds like a beacon. Distorted voices on megaphones started barking out orders and demands.

  At the far end was an army of policemen, all armed with clear plastic shields and steel batons. They wore suits of ballistic armor and thick helmets, all black and blue. They started forcing their way forward into the protesters, crushing them.

  In the chaos, both Themis and the Shakudos began to retreat, backing away down the street. Flowers shouted at the gang and they returned to their march, hopefully escaping the police. As Tsukiko stayed behind, Etsuko and her small entourage descended upon her.

  "Tsuki, we gotta go." Etsuko tugged on Tsukiko's shoulder, but she wouldn't budge. "C'mon, it's too risky!"

  Tsuki's eyes kept forward, watching the riot police slam their shields against the protesters. As she watched them, they became more and more hostile, shoving protesters to the ground, separating them and then assaulting them.

  "Go on ahead." Tsukiko took a step toward the crowd.

  "What?" Etsuko called out.

  The crowd split as Tsukiko pushed on through, eventually parting before her as the protesters stepped aside to let her through. Things seemed to get a bit quieter as Tsuki marched through chaos, though she couldn't tell if it was just her imagination.

  Tsuki kept stomping forward as she watched them bludgeon the protestors and crush them under their boots. When protesters fell, they dragged them into their line, brutalizing them as they attempted to detain them.

  Tsuki watched it all unfold. She saw the broken faces, bruised bodies, and blood streaming from opened head wounds. She watched the police tackle young men and women, taking them to the ground and beating them senseless with their metal batons. Tsuki kept up her approach.

  Before her was a lone riot cop, a single link in the road wide chain of officers that were moving to crush and detain the protesters. He held up his shield to brace himself, but a raw, unrelenting anger welled up inside of the woman now known as Izanami.

  Tsuki broke into a run, then into a sprint, putting all the force and weight in her body behind a single punch. The shield fell out of his hands as her punch swept him off his feet. He tried to get back up, struggling against Tsukiko as she grabbed his arms and struck him in the face.

  The former Knight pulled back, shaking her now stiff and aching hand. A second riot cop slammed into her, pushing against her in an attempt to bring her down to the ground. Tsuki planted her heels and pushed back against him. His strength faltered first, and Tsukiko lifted him up and threw him back down onto the asphalt.

  Without a second's rest, a third officer came running toward her to avenge his fallen comrades. Tsukiko reached down and grabbed the previous cop's shield off the ground, then launched it forward. It struck the incoming officer, making him stumble backward, onto one knee. Tsukiko ran forward and planted her boot on his shield, crushing him under it. She stomped on it over and over, her heel scratching and cracking the plastic.

  There she was, standing over the trapped officer, hardly even bothered by any of it, as the officers began to shift their focus from the protest back to her. One of the policemen raised their radio and muttered something into it. Tsukiko couldn't hear over the sound of the crowd's shouts and her own heaving breaths.

  Tsuki backed away to the side of the street, the riot cops closing in to surround her. In that moment, a sense of desperate frustration and anger welled in her chest. She gripped one of the vending machines on the sidewalk and pulled it away from the wall. Its lights went dark as she tore it away from its cable and lifted it up onto her shoulder, her body shuddering as she did so.

  The officers scattered as Tsuki stepped forward toward them. With some effort, Tsukiko threw the entire vending machine at the police formation, its metal frame smashing into the asphalt and its paint scraping away as it barreled through their ranks.

  Adrenaline made Tsuki's body light as a feather and her senses felt the sharpest they'd ever been. A smile stretched across her face as she watched the police retreat. Only a few brave, foolish souls were still standing before her.

  When they tried to rebuild their soldier formation, Tsukiko grabbed a parked motorcycle and flung it toward them. The sight of them fleeing in terror brought her glee.

  "C'mon, you useless fuckers." Tsukiko muttered to herself. "Come and get me."

  One of the riot cops ran up to her, and then another, and she conquered each of them with her own bare hands. Some of them got back up, some of them didn't. Some of them backed away to regroup and others kept on coming. The police had become just as desperate as she'd been.

  A shrill voice shouted at her over a megaphone demanding she turn herself in. When that didn't work, they started pleading with her, trying to appease her, to try to remind her that, whatever it was she was doing, it wasn't worth it. Their efforts were in vain. Tsukiko could hardly understand any of it in the first place.

  Eventually, the police started to thin out, till just the protesters remained. As her racing heart started to calm itself, she turned to them and was greeted by bright camera flashes and a cacophony of shouts. All Tsuki wanted to do was leave, so that's what she did.

  Tsuki took one long look at the damage she'd caused, the scattered police shields and batons, the bicycles and trash cans and vending machines now lying in the middle of the street. She looked the other way and saw the protesters tending to their wounded, the people she tried to protect. In the end, Tsuki started walking toward the crowd, which parted for her as she started the long trek to find where the Shakudos had ended up.

  FROM THE AUTHOR:EDITOR'S NOTE: "I apologize for the delay in getting this chapter out, I have been shifting schedules at work over the past few months and it has made editing the chapters a bit more sporadic. Instead, me and Mariko spend the nights discussing the general direction of the book and coming chapters, so we maintain solid productivity overall.

  It's been a ton of fun exploring these darker elements of Tsukiko's personality, the idea that she's always had the potential for violence, and that she needed tipping over for it to happen. Things get somewhat grim at the end of this chapter but, after finishing this descent I feel like the following chapters will liven up quite a bit, at least on paper.

  Originally we wanted to delve more into the meaning of Izanami and to have Merlin show up, but given the turns the chapter took it felt a bit clashing in tone.

  Thank you for your continued readership over the years, and we hope to see you in the next one!"