Chapter 107: You Are the "Dragon"! (Please Subscribe!)

"Oh! So this is the flesh and blood of that big guy?"

Hisao Takemoto did not answer the boy's question, but instead observed the half-man-high canister in his hands with great interest. Saeko stood with dignified poise at the entrance to the basement, though the dissatisfaction in her expression was plain to see. It was only when Hakudo Kyou tucked the metal canister behind him that the brawny old man withdrew his gaze.

"How did we know?" Takemoto raised an eyebrow, mocking him. "Last night, as you stared at the Tokyo sky, occupied by that ominous glow, the wild ambition in your eyes was practically burning out of you!"

Indeed, he had been taught by his master. His master would not fail to notice his urgency and greed. Hakudo nodded silently.

After mocking his disciple's intentions, the old man’s expression grew serious. "Kyou, even if I am but a martial artist, I know what profound and magnificent mysteries of life that monster represents. And you—right now, you have no knowledge, no assistants, no research equipment..."

Takemoto’s eyes were locked on his most prized disciple. "Are you truly in such a rush?"

The boy did not answer his master; he simply met his gaze with a resolute look. After a long silence, the brawny old man nodded, as if confirming something in those eyes, and burst into laughter.

"You brat! Haha! There are always parts of you I cannot fathom, and you’ve been that way since you were a child!"

"Suit yourself! Suit yourself!"

After laughing, he moved to walk past Hakudo. But as they brushed shoulders, he added, "We still have a fight that Kuroki Gensai interrupted, remember? So, you’d better come out of this alive!"

The old man’s gaze was fixed ahead, but the chilling tone of his voice sounded less like a promise of a "spar" and more like a threat of "murder." Hakudo knew this was his master’s way of encouraging him. The boy nodded silently, and the old man left with a satisfied smile.

When Hakudo approached Saeko, she spoke before he could utter a word. Her expression was detached as she said, "As a member of a martial house, I should not complain about my husband's ambition." The purple-haired beauty looked up, her eyes filled with undisguised resentment. "As a woman, I should not complain about a husband who wishes to protect his wife. But, Kyou! How is this resentment of being left behind supposed to dissipate?"

As a man, what answer could he give to such a question from his wife? But perhaps Saeko did not want to make things difficult for him. Without waiting for his reply, she looked him straight in the eyes.

"You do not need to answer me."

She lowered her head, curling her beautiful body into the boy's arms. Her tone was full of bitterness, but even more so, a flat, quiet determination. "Ten days. I will wait for you for only ten days. If you come out after ten days, all you will see is my corpse."

"As the daughter of a martial house, obedience to my husband's ambition is a necessary restraint. But..." A beautiful, desolate smile looked up at his face from his embrace, "the family creed never said that a woman cannot commit suicide for love if her husband is consumed by his own ambition."

With that, the purple-haired beauty pushed the boy through the door herself. The bio-computer sensed the weight of a body leaning against the door outside, then slowly sliding down until it slumped onto the floor. Hakudo remained silent, picked up the metal canister, and headed down.

The shelter of the Katou family had even more extreme defense standards for its basement. It not only had independent power and supply lines, but lead plates were interleaved between the upper levels to shield against radiation. This was the very reason Hakudo had chosen the basement. When Godzilla first landed, the radioactivity of its flesh had been widely spread by the public, and once it could no longer be hidden, the authorities admitted it. He was training to protect himself and those he cared about in the coming disasters. It would be laughable if Saeko and his master suffered radiation sickness during his training.

*Clack.*

Driven by curiosity, he covered his body with a layer of 'Ken.' Hakudo opened the lid of the metal canister. An intense level of radiation, accompanied by a foul stench, instantly flooded the basement. A metallic scent filled his nostrils. He knew these were the symptoms of radiation exposure.

Nen, at least in its pure energy state, could not intercept microscopic particles. Only the internal energy of the Dragon’s Blood, as if sensing a threat, began to circulate through his meridians at an accelerated pace. High-energy particles penetrated his 'Ken' as if it were nothing, bombarding his cells, the smallest units of life, which were being ruthlessly disintegrated. Hakudo wiped beneath his nose; his fingers were stained a vivid, shocking red.

"At this level of radiation, this is enough to cause a slow death," the boy silently sentenced himself in a flat tone. But a fierce, savage grin soon appeared on his face. "In other words, succeed or perish, is that it? That suits me perfectly!"

He shoved his palms, now covered in the Nen technique 'Ko,' straight into the lead-lined canister. With a teeth-gritting sound of tearing metal, he ripped the top of the canister clean off. The radiation levels were so high that the fluorescent black-red flesh was revealed to the boy in its entirety.

Exposed to the radiation, Hakudo was no longer just bleeding from his nostrils. His ears were bleeding too. Blood spots appeared on his gums before mixing with the blood from his throat. Just by being in close proximity to the flesh, Hakudo, who was at the human zenith when operating at full capacity, was already bleeding from all seven orifices!

"Wakatsuki, Master, you are both wrong. I am not here to study it."

His trembling hands laboriously lifted the metal canister above his head. On his radiation-scorched fingers, a nail detached completely, flesh and all. The boy's smile grew even more ferocious, stained by his own blood.

"I am going to 'eat' the damn thing!"

*Splash.*

As he flipped his palms, the entire canister of radioactive flesh poured down over his head! His muscles wailed, his internal organs convulsed, his vision went dark, and the flesh entering his ear canals seemed to erode its way into his skull.

Death is terrifying. But to have a clear, conscious understanding of the process of one's own death is even more terrifying! Yet, there Hakudo was, amidst the agonizing pain and the horror of murdering himself, rubbing the flesh of Godzilla evenly over every part of his body.

Further "killing" himself!

Then, the blood-stained boy lay limply on the ground, circulating the "Dragon’s Blood Secret Art" over and over again. However, this extraordinary energy, born from the soul and character of a man, seemed to be acting only on instinct to patch up his body's damage. Wherever the radiation destroyed or mutated him, the energy rushed there like a fire brigade. It showed no intention of incorporating these chaotic "things" into his own power. But destruction is always easier than repair, and the Dragon’s Blood internal energy began to falter...

"Heh!"

In the pool of blood, the accumulated gore seemed to have blocked his respiratory tract, but he still let out a hoarse laugh. "Godzilla, I called you a 'Dragon'..."

Hakudo grabbed a hard fragment that looked like a piece of a dorsal fin and swallowed it straight down!

"Then you are a 'Dragon'!"

The hard mass traveled down his esophagus into his abdominal cavity. After the Dragon’s Blood internal energy had exhausted itself trying to repair his body, it suddenly seemed triggered by something, and began to circulate with a frantic, maddened intensity!

And Hakudo Kyou’s consciousness began to fade into the abyss...