YuYu licked his lips.

  “Mmm, this is exciting.” His tone carried an unsettling mix of amusement and hunger. His eyes gleamed with something wild.

  Then, a grin.

  “I like to know the names of the people I’m about to brutalize.” His voice was smooth, casual, almost mocking. “What’s yours?”

  Kaito blinked, then let out a slow exhale.

  “Man… you sound just like Ryuko.”

  He shook his head, rolling his shoulders. “Kaito.”

  YuYu’s grin widened.

  “Nice to meet you, Kaito.”

  Then—he moved.

  Instantly.

  BOOM.

  Kaito barely had time to react before—

  A palm strike to the ribs.

  A kick to the jaw.

  A spinning elbow to the temple.

  The air shattered as Kaito was sent tumbling backward, flipping twice before he skidded to a halt.

  YuYu was back in the same spot, as if he’d never moved at all.

  Kaito wiped blood from his lip. ”…Okay. That was fast.”

  YuYu tilted his head. “That was slow.”

  Kaito exhaled, his grip tightening on Kokushibō.

  Then—he flickered.

  The shadows swallowed him.

  YuYu barely had time to turn before—

  SHNK.

  Kaito’s bde shed out from the darkness.

  YuYu smirked.

  “Ah. There it is. I love it when they try.”

  “Tenkai no Shingi No. 57 – Mirror Cage.”

  A faint shimmer.

  And then—Kaito was yanked out of his own darkness.

  His body jerked forward unnaturally, dragged into the air by an unseen force. His own momentum turned against him.

  And then—

  BOOM.

  Yuyu drove a knee straight into Kaito’s stomach, sending him crashing into the realm’s floor.

  “You’re not bad.”

  YuYu rolled his shoulders, yawning.

  “But you’re not good enough.”

  ?