Renshiro’s glowing golden eyes slowly faded back to normal as he looked around in disbelief.

"...What..."

He looked down at his own hands.

"What did I just do?"

For the first time since meeting him, his arrogance cracked slightly.

Arthur stepped over debris calmly.

"You didn’t do anything intentionally."

Renshiro looked sharply toward him.

"What was that power?!"

Arthur answered honestly.

"A warning meant for me."

Raven crossed her arms while stepping over a broken pillar.

"The higher beings that empowered you clearly don’t enjoy people poking around inside your mind."

Renshiro looked around at his destroyed office in horror.

"My office..."

Raven glanced around.

"You had too many swords anyway."

"Those were collector pieces!"

Arthur interrupted before the situation devolved further.

"We need to leave."

Renshiro looked at him sharply.

"What?"

Arthur gestured around them.

"In about thirty seconds your guild hunters are going to storm this floor thinking someone attacked you."

As if on cue, distant shouting echoed through the hallway.

"GUILDMASTER!"

"INTRUDERS!"

Raven looked toward the entrance.

"...Right on schedule."

Renshiro finally realized how terrible this looked.

The strongest hunter in Japan, his office destroyed.

And standing inside the ruins, two absurdly powerful foreigners connected to Gotham’s incident.

"...This is going to become annoying to explain," he muttered.

Arthur nodded once.

"Exactly."

Then shadows spread beneath Arthur’s feet.

A massive portal of darkness opened behind him.

Renshiro’s eyes widened slightly. 𝗳𝗿𝐞𝕖𝘄𝗲𝕓𝗻𝚘𝚟𝕖𝐥.𝚌𝕠𝕞

"What is tha..."

Arthur immediately grabbed him by the shoulder.

"No time."

"Wait!"

Raven smirked slightly.

"You’re coming with us, Samurai King."

"I DIDN’T AGREE TO TH.."

Arthur dragged him directly into the portal.

Raven floated in right behind them casually.

The portal snapped shut instantly.

Not even two seconds later, the doors to the ruined office exploded open.

Dozens of armed hunters stormed inside with weapons drawn and magic ignited around their bodies.

Then they froze.

Silence filled the destroyed room, fire crackled softly and smoke drifted upward.

The Guildmaster was gone, the mysterious visitors were gone. And half the office no longer existed.

One hunter slowly looked around in horror.

Hunters poured through the shattered doorway one after another, weapons already drawn as some expected monsters.

Others expected assassins, and none of them expected to find the entire upper floor of the Samurai Guild headquarters looking as though a meteor had detonated inside it.

Pieces of the walls still crumbled outward.

Fire alarms screamed overhead, the decorative waterfall had burst apart completely, sending streams of water through the burning wreckage.

One hunter slowly lowered his blade.

"...What the hell happened here?"

Another crouched beside a melted section of flooring, touching it carefully before immediately pulling his hand back.

"It’s still hot..."

"No kidding it’s hot!"

A third hunter pointed upward in disbelief.

"The ceiling is gone!"

The high ranked hunters looked far more unsettled than the lower ranked ones.

Because they could feel it, residual energy.

The sheer density of mana left in the room made their instincts scream.

This was not an ordinary attack, one S-Rank hunter stepped carefully through the rubble, eyes narrowed.

"...Guildmaster Renshiro?"

No response, another hunter swallowed nervously.

"Did someone actually attack him?"

"That’s impossible, you know how strong he is."

"Nothing is impossible after what we saw in Gotham."

The room grew quieter at that.

Everyone saw the footage of what happened in Gotham.

The giant gate, the monsters and the shadow army.

And above all, the man surrounded by darkness.

One hunter spoke carefully.

"...You don’t think..."

Before he could finish, the receptionist girl stumbled out breathlessly.

She looked terrified and deeply confused.

The moment she saw the ruined office, her face lost all color.

"...Oh no."

Every hunter immediately turned toward her.

"You."

One of the executives grabbed her shoulders.

"You escorted the visitors up here, didn’t you?!"

She nodded frantically.

"I-I did!"

"Who were they?!"

The girl pointed shakily toward the destruction.

"There was a man and a woman..."

"What man?"

She swallowed.

Then said in a trembling voice,

"...Sir Arthur Blackwynd, he is that mysterious shadow man."

There was pure silence.

"...Arthur?"

"He is that shadow guy?!"

"No way."

"The one from Gotham?!"

The receptionist nodded rapidly.

"Yes! Yes! Him! The shadow man! Arthur Blackwynd!"

The entire floor erupted instantly.

"WHAT?!"

"That was actually him?!"

"You brought HIM here?!"

"I DIDN’T KNOW THIS WOULD HAPPEN!"

One hunter grabbed his head.

"Oh this is bad."

"This is really bad."

Another hunter looked toward the destroyed office with growing horror.

"Wait..."

His eyes widened.

"...You think he killed the Guildmaster?"

Everyone froze again, the receptionist blinked.

Then slowly looked around herself.

"...He..."

Another pause.

"...I don’t know, he didn’t seem like the..."

The atmosphere immediately shifted from confusion to serious panic.

One executive stepped forward sharply.

"Did he say anything suspicious to you?"

"I-I don’t know! He simply wanted to talk to the Guildmaster!"

"Talk ?!"

"I don’t know okay! I only escorted them here then heard an explosion moments ago!"

One hunter looked toward the shattered wall overlooking Tokyo.

"...Did Arthur Blackwynd kidnap him? There is no blood or any sort of body here."

Another answered immediately.

"Or assassinate him, we saw that he wields some crazy powers."

"That explosion..."

"No S-Rank hunter could do that much damage."

A younger hunter hesitated.

"But... why would the shadow man attack the Guildmaster?"

Another one spoke grimly.

"Powerful beings don’t need reasons."

The receptionist immediately shook her head.

"No! No, he didn’t seem hostile!"

Everyone stared at her.

She tried explaining desperately.

"He was calm! He even gave me an autograph!"

"...You got an autograph before a possible assassination?"

"I DIDN’T KNOW THERE WOULD BE AN ASSASSINATION!"

One hunter suddenly looked toward the destroyed room again.

"...Wait."

He narrowed his eyes.

"There are no traces of any sort of battle here."

Another nodded slowly.

"And no blood."

The executive folded his arms tightly.

"That doesn’t matter."

His voice became grim.

"Japan’s strongest hunter disappeared after a meeting with the most dangerous unidentified meta-human currently active on Earth."

Another hunter muttered quietly,

"...The same man who commands an undead army that appears from time to time."

The receptionist looked horrified now.

"...Arthur wouldn’t..."

But even she sounded uncertain now, because the images from Gotham replayed endlessly in her mind.

That man floating before the gate.

Those glowing violet eyes, the darkness around him, the shadows monsters kneeling before him.

And now, an entire office had exploded moments after he arrived.

One hunter quietly said what everyone else was thinking.

"...Maybe Gotham wasn’t a rescue."

Nobody answered him.

.

.

.

.

Hours later, the story exploded across Japan, then the world.

Massive screens throughout Tokyo lit up with emergency news broadcasts.

Crowds gathered beneath them in the streets.

Restaurants muted their conversations to watch.

Hunter forums crashed from traffic and every channel displayed the same images.

Arthur floating before the gate in Gotham.

The shadow army, the destruction.

Then, images of the ruined Samurai Guild office.

News anchors spoke with tense seriousness.

"Breaking news tonight regarding the mysterious meta-human involved in the Gotham incident."

The screen displayed Arthur’s face, Ashen white hair, Glowing violet eyes, shadow armor. "This individual known as Arthur Blackwynd, known by the people as the man of shadows, has allegedly attacked the headquarters of Japan’s Samurai Guild."

Another image appeared, the ruined office.

Emergency personnel, destroyed walls.

"The Guildmaster of Samurai Guild, Renshiro, currently remains missing following a private meeting with Blackwynd earlier today."

People throughout Tokyo stopped walking to watch.

A group of office workers stared upward uneasily.

"...That’s the shadow guy."

"The one with the undead army?"

"Yeah but did you see Gotham? That guy looked terrifying."

A teenager nearby immediately argued back.

"He literally saved the planet!"

Another crossed his arms nervously.

"And now Japan’s strongest hunter vanished after meeting him."

The first teen hesitated slightly.

"...Okay yeah that sounds bad."

Inside a ramen shop, several hunters watched the broadcast carefully.

One older hunter narrowed his eyes.

"They’re calling it an assassination attempt already?"

Another scoffed.

"The media needs drama.. Why would that person kill Renshiro after saving Gotham alongside the Justice league."

"But the Guildmaster really disappeared."

"Still no confirmation he’s dead."

The television continued.

"Some sources claim Arthur Blackwynd maintains close ties with the Justice League, though no official statement has yet been released by the League."

Footage played again of Arthur standing before the Gotham gate.

One woman whispered quietly,

"...He doesn’t look human."

Another answered softly:

"Maybe he isn’t."

Elsewhere across Tokyo,

people debated endlessly, some feared him, some admired him, some outright worshipped him after Gotham.

Social media exploded with arguments.

"He saved millions."

"He commands monsters, so he is still dangerous!"

"He closed the gate by himself."

"He kidnapped Japan’s strongest hunter."

"He fought beside Superman!"

"And even Superman & Supegirl looked cautious around him!"

In one electronics store, dozens of televisions displayed the same image of Arthur standing amidst shadows while the reporter continued speaking.

"At the moment, Arthur Blackwynd’s whereabouts remain unknown as well."

The screen zoomed into his glowing violet eyes.

"Authorities and Hunter Associations worldwide are monitoring the situation closely."

Then came the final sentence.

One that spread fear across the entire country.

"If the allegations prove true... then the being who saved Gotham may also represent one of the greatest threats humanity has ever encountered."

/-\

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