"Was it you, kid, who said you wanted to meet me?"
Shin didn't have to wait long; about half an hour later, a sharp-looking middle-aged man pushed open the bar door and walked in.
Naturally, being part of the underworld, a group of men followed behind him.
As soon as they entered, they instinctively surged forward, surrounding Shin completely, leaving the middle-aged man standing face-to-face with him in the middle.
Through his perception of "Ki," Shin could feel someone behind him reaching for something — likely a gun.
"Yes, I'm the one who wanted to see you. What's your name?"
Shin remained seated, calm and indifferent, as if he couldn't care less about the number of people surrounding him.
Seeing this, the middle-aged man frowned, instinctively feeling that something was off. Shin looked like a high school student, so what gave him the confidence to remain so calm in front of so many people?
Uncertain of Shin's background, the man paused but still answered his question:
"Everyone on the street calls me Kiryu. And who might you be?"
"Kiryu? Don't tell me your name is Kazuma Kiryu?"
Hearing the familiar surname, Shin froze, then instinctively asked further.
That name made him think of another guy, also involved in the underworld.
"Who's that?"
Unfortunately, the response wasn't what Shin had hoped for; the man who called himself Kiryu looked puzzled, seeming not to recognize the name.
"...I see. You don't look much like him anyway. It must just be a coincidence."
Realizing the man wasn't lying, Shin sighed. It seemed to be nothing more than a strange coincidence.
With that little interlude out of the way, Shin didn't feel like engaging in idle chatter and got straight to the point.
"Kiryu, to put it simply, I want you to work for me."
"…?"
Kiryu's face showed a puzzled expression as he glanced around at his men.
They shared his reaction, stunned by Shin's words.
It wasn't surprising. A seemingly unarmed high school student had barged into a bar, called out the gang boss, and without a second thought asked him to work for him.
Kiryu could even imagine the ridicule he'd face if word got out — the other underworld figures would laugh at him for years.
At this thought, Kiryu's expression turned fierce.
"Kid, if you're just trying to make me mad, then—"
Boom—!
Before he could finish, the situation around them changed drastically. Without Kiryu even realizing, countless powerful impacts erupted almost simultaneously.
In the next moment, Kiryu was horrified to see all his men fly into the air, seemingly punched upward by some incredible force.
Some even hit the ceiling, sustaining secondary injuries.
Afterward, his men fell to the ground with pitiful cries; many passed out from the pain.
"What… what did you do?"
Kiryu was completely stunned. He'd been in the underworld a long time but had never seen anything like this.
That display of force wasn't something a human could achieve. Every person had been struck at the same time, lifted into the air by an overwhelming power.
A superpower? How could such a thing exist in this world?
Kiryu, unaware of anything like a Stand user, naturally assumed Shin possessed a superpower.
In fact, he wasn't entirely wrong. Shin had just used "Blackbird World" to stop time. During the few seconds of halted time, Blackbird had punched all the men around him, then released the time stop.
The resulting scene was exactly as Kiryu saw.
Kiryu had earned a reputation in the Shimokitazawa underworld, and even connected with several Tokyo crime bosses.
But despite this, he had never heard any of these big shots mention superpowers. This was his first time witnessing a power beyond normal human imagination.
"Well? Impressive strength, isn't it?"
Shin stood up from his chair and walked over to Kiryu. Though Shin, a high schooler, was naturally shorter than the well-built middle-aged man, Kiryu felt as if he were the smaller one.
"Do you want this kind of power?"
"You… you mean I could have this power too?"
Kiryu's heart raced at Shin's words. As a man, who wouldn't want to possess extraordinary strength?
Though Shin's display of power frightened him, the temptation of gaining superpowers was impossible to resist.
"Of course, you have the potential."
Shin smiled and took out an arrow, letting it spin in his hand until it pointed directly at Kiryu.
Kiryu did indeed have the potential for a Stand, which made things easier for Shin. After all, Kiryu was already the boss of this organization, so there was no need to find another Stand user to take over.
"But as I said, if you accept this power, you'll work for me. Are you ready for that?"
"I… of course! I'm willing to do anything for you!"
Kiryu looked at the arrow in Shin's hand. Though he didn't know its purpose, the thought of gaining superpowers overrode everything.
He knelt before Shin in a traditional Japanese gesture of submission, a practice quite common among the Japanese underworld.
"Mere words mean nothing. I have my ways of keeping you under my control — you'll have no way out."
Shin chuckled lightly and, seeing Kiryu raise his head, flicked the arrow into his throat, piercing it.
"Mm…!"
As the arrow pierced his throat, Kiryu's face turned pale, and he instinctively tried to resist.
But soon, he felt a strange sensation spreading throughout his body, and the wound in his throat began to heal on its own.
As he looked behind Shin, he saw a dark figure slowly materializing in his vision.
To be continued...
Advance 50 Chapters are up on my Patreon.
pat reon.com/AlphaSenatus
Btw, hand over your Power Stones, Ningen!