The First Employee

Sea wind rippled across the water.

The calm surface lifted into soft waves as drifting clouds covered the sun, leaving the afternoon quiet and gentle.

Ren lay in his wisteria-patterned rocking chair with his eyes closed, relaxed enough to look as if the world had nothing to do with him.

The chair swayed lightly beneath him.

He looked like some sheltered young heir, lips curved with faint amusement, as if he were waiting for something to arrive.

"You really know how to enjoy yourself."

A man's voice broke the silence.

It was sharp, unruly, and amused.

At the far edge of the horizon, a figure slowly appeared.

Then he vanished.

The next instant, he stood beside Ren.

Not a single footprint marked the sand behind him.

It was as if the man had stepped out of empty air.

"Not bad, right?" Ren said, still lying in the chair. "I was getting bored waiting."

He cracked one pale-moon eye open and glanced at the man beside him.

Toji Fushiguro stood there, lean and solid, built like a blade wrapped in skin.

Ren's interest sharpened.

"This thing is your doing, isn't it?"

Toji raised his arm.

A palm-sized black sphere clung to it. Weak cursed energy shimmered across the surface.

After leaving the supermarket, Toji had discovered the strange object on his arm without knowing when it had appeared.

The black sphere had no offensive power. In fact, it seemed able to enhance cursed energy to a small degree. For a jujutsu sorcerer, it would have counted as a decent cursed tool.

For Toji, it was worse than useless.

His assassination work depended on absence.

Because of his Heavenly Restriction, Toji had no cursed energy at all. Combined with his monstrous stealth, that made him almost impossible for ordinary sorcerers to detect.

Yaga had been the same way in the supermarket. Without some highly specialized technique, almost no sorcerer could sense Toji.

Now this thing had ruined that advantage.

Even weak cursed energy stood out under a sorcerer's senses. With the black sphere on his arm, Toji might as well have been walking around with a lantern strapped to him.

He had tried tearing it off by force.

It did not move.

The sphere seemed fused into his body, rooted beneath the skin. No matter how much strength he used, he could not pry it loose.

Or rather, the cursed technique covering it erased the force before it could take effect.

That irritated Toji more than the object itself.

Worse, the sphere seemed to carry some kind of guidance effect. It kept pulsing faintly, resonating with the direction of the beach.

Toji did not need a detective to guess who was responsible.

So he came straight here.

He had even skipped his favorite casino.

The trick was cruel enough to cut into his livelihood.

"How is it?" Ren asked, sitting up slightly. "Fun little toy, isn't it?"

He tapped the arm of the rocking chair.

Tap.

Tap.

Tap.

The sound carried a strange rhythm. Toji, who had looked ready to tear the beach apart a second earlier, suddenly calmed.

His brows tightened.

Ink-dark eyes narrowed. His feet shifted apart, one forward and one back, and the muscles across his body drew taut.

Toji had survived too many life-and-death fights to ignore instinct.

His body reacted before thought.

He could enter combat at any moment.

Anything that could influence emotion could influence a fight.

That was a rule Toji had learned through blood.

The instant his anger was smoothed away, danger rang through him.

"Don't get so tense," Ren said, waving one hand lazily. "I just want to make a deal."

Toji stared at him as if facing an enemy.

"A deal? What kind of deal?"

"Become my employee. Ren's Agency still doesn't have any staff."

Toji froze.

He truly had not expected Ren to try recruiting him.

As a bounty hunter, his principle was simple: money in, job done.

But strong people had pride.

There was a difference between choosing to take a job and being told to take one.

Toji's mouth curved into something dangerous. His eyes narrowed like a snake's as he looked at Ren's smiling face.

"And why would I do that? Because of this toy on my arm?"

"Of course not." Ren laughed. "Because I'm stronger than you."

Toji's expression turned strange.

The way he looked at Ren now was almost pitying.

"You're stronger than me?"

"Want to bet on it?" Ren raised one finger. "A fight. Body only. No cursed techniques. If I win, you become my employee."

Toji's tone grew heavier as he felt the terrifying strength suddenly waking inside Ren.

"And if you lose?"

A dagger appeared in Toji's hand.

Ren smiled.

"I don't lose."

The moment those words ended, both figures vanished.

Two crisp bursts cracked through the air.

Only speed at a certain level could tear sound open like that.

Ren's left hand closed into a fist.

No cursed energy flared around him. Brutal physical strength gathered into one point as he punched straight at Toji.

The air burst again.

Toji crossed both arms in front of his chest.

Then he released his strength.

The collision detonated between them.

Raw force swept out like a storm.

Nearby fruit trees snapped under the aftershock.

Just a clash of flesh had produced that kind of destruction.

Ren's eyes flashed like lightning.

His lean body moved with impossible force, like a human-shaped engine of violence.

Punch after punch hammered toward Toji.

Toji's brows drew together.

Pain stabbed through the webbing between his thumb and forefinger. Blocking Ren's fists with his palms already felt difficult.

For years, Toji had been the one crushing others with physical power.

Since when did someone else get to overpower him?

This kid really isn't Heavenly Restricted?

Toji clenched his teeth.

One forced step became another.

At the first exchange, Ren seized the rhythm.

He pressed Toji down through sheer inhuman strength.

"Burst Fist."

Ren's gaze changed.

More power poured into his hands. Both fists shot out, aimed straight at Toji's face.

The blow was so vicious that it seemed to empty the air around it, driving forward like a cannon shell.

Faced with that strike, Toji advanced instead of retreating.

His body twisted at a bizarre angle. In the final instant before Ren's attack landed, he slipped to Ren's left.

"You're still green, kid!"

The dagger flashed like a hungry wolf's fang, aimed for Ren's head.

"You fell for it, idiot."

Ren's eyes snapped toward Toji, full of mockery.

Toji's heart sank.

He released the dagger and tried to pull away.

Too late.

At some point, Ren's palm had quietly appeared in front of his chest.

"Burst Fist."

The force exploded directly against Toji's chest.

Toji staggered back several steps, face pale. His shirt was already torn to rags, and a line of red marked the corner of his mouth.

Compared to Toji, who looked half ruined, Ren still seemed lazy and untouched.

He stood where he was, smiling brighter than before.

White teeth caught the sunlight.

In that moment, he looked like a demon considering its next bite.

No wonder he's called the strongest body. Even with Six Vaults Devourer nourishing me, breaking him isn't easy.

Ren was not nearly as relaxed as he looked.

The fight seemed one-sided, but every strike placed an enormous load on his own body.

That was why he had attacked without mercy, aiming to end it fast.

But Toji Fushiguro deserved the name of the strongest physical body.

After taking that attack head-on, he had only suffered minor injuries. His face had gone pale, but his blood still ran hot, and his fighting spirit burned even harder.

Monster, Ren thought.

Toji ripped away the remains of his shirt, exposing a body covered in scars.

They crossed him in ugly lines, like centipedes crawling over muscle.

They were the medals left behind by countless battles.

"Again."

Toji grinned, bloodthirsty and wide.

Strength gathered through his body. Sand exploded beneath his feet, leaving a crater behind.

Then he disappeared from Ren's sight.

Ren did not panic.

His own feet drove into the sand, and he rose into the air.

At the same time, Toji appeared in front of him.

Toji's fists crashed toward Ren's chest with the force of thunder.

Ren did not dodge.

He took the blows head-on.

Toji felt as if his fist had struck a mountain. No matter how much force he used, Ren did not move.

"Are you trying to tickle me?"

Ren glanced at him with contempt and threw a punch.

The power and speed left layered afterimages in the air.

Toji did not dodge either.

He took Ren's punch with his body.

Red flashed across his face, but arrogance still burned between his brows.

"You're not much better."

"I hope your bones are as hard as your mouth."

Fists struck bodies again and again.

The grind of bone and the red splash of blood became the rhythm of the fight.

No tricks.

No flourishes.

No technique.

By silent agreement, both men chose the most direct way to decide the outcome.

Their fists fell like rain, each strike thrown with everything they had.

They fought like machines.

They dropped from the air back onto the sand and kept going, as if fatigue had no place in either body.

No one knew how long it lasted.

"If this were a fight to the death, I'd have ten thousand ways to kill you!"

Toji's face was bruised and swollen. Blood kept running from the corner of his mouth, and bruises covered his body.

The injuries made him look even more savage.

He bared his teeth at Ren, who looked a little rougher than before, but almost unharmed.

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