After gaining my powers, Doctor Grijan and I set out for the south of the country — a remote region where the last Satsujin Otoko still lived.
I was there, in the darkness, a balaclava covering my face. Midnight had just struck.
I waited. Silent.
Ready.
Then…
BOOM.
The signal. The green light.
I attacked.
I killed. Again. Again. And again.
Infants. Elders. Men. Women. All.
Without hesitation. Without mercy.
But something disturbed me.
The Satsujin Otoko I was slaughtering…
they didn't have the same gaze as those from my past.
These had eyes wide open with terror.
Innocent looks.
As if they were just civilians, ordinary people living their lives.
Mothers protected their children,
fathers tried to fight,
but they were powerless against my shadow manipulation.
And the more I exterminated them, the more a strange feeling overwhelmed me.
The roles had reversed.
I was no longer the prey. It was them.
Their gazes…
were identical to Jacob's once.
And mine… had become that of the Tyrant Killer Man.
That night, after turning that village into a charnel house, we disappeared.
The authorities arrived.
They said killing Killer Men was a crime.
A crime? After all they had done?
It made no sense.
Unless… a peace treaty had been signed?
No matter.
I will exterminate them all. To the last one.
A few days later, Doctor Grijan sent me to retrieve the corpse of a prisoner: Shirōgane.
With my shadows, it was child's play.
He resurrected him.
Gave him, too, the power of shadows.
We were now two, servants of Grijan.
But despite that… he remained unsatisfied.
He said the true Satsujin Otoko… were far too powerful for us.
I didn't understand.
What I had seen that night were terrified civilians, unable to defend themselves.
But now…
I understand I was wrong.
Back to the present
Lazareth was on the ground.
Salomé, barely nine years old, was perched on him, striking him relentlessly.
— YOU'RE GOING TO DIE, AREN'T YOU?!! she screamed, mad with rage.
Each blow fell like a hammer on his face.
His mask was broken.
Blood spurted with every impact.
Salomé didn't stop.
Lazareth didn't move anymore. His vision blurred.
The young girl was nothing but a red and black whirlwind in his tired eyes.
Lazareth (internally):
I understand now…
This kid… this 9-year-old Satsujin Otoko…
She dominates me effortlessly.
I was wrong.
It was Doctor Grijan who was right.
He felt his consciousness fading.
And suddenly…
He found himself in the void.
A strange silence surrounded him.
He heard someone crying.
He searched.
And there, right beside him…
He saw himself.
Him, at 10 years old.
Alone.
Collapsed in an alley.
Crying.
Passersby walked by without ever offering a hand.
The Satsujin Otoko had taken everything from him.
His family. His dignity. His childhood.
This is the end…
I am dying…
My life flashes before my eyes.
He saw himself grow. Wander.
Live on the streets.
Then become what he is today.
He watched all this silently.
Then clenched his fists.
My existence…
My destiny…
This cursed name… "Satsujin Otoko"…
I cannot die like this.
Not yet.
Not before this gaze…
And the image of the Tyrant Killer Man burst into his mind.
That gaze…
That predator's gaze he had feared so much… and admired so much.
The one he had always wanted to embody deep down.
— NOOOOOOOOOO!!!!! he screamed, snapping back violently to himself.
Salomé was surprised.
Lazareth's body liquefied, transforming into moving black ink.
Instinctively, Salomé jumped back, into a defensive stance.
She got ready.
Lazareth stood up.
He was different.
His features had reshaped, his black aura raged wildly.
He raised his head to the sky and roared:
— AAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHH!!!
His aura exploded throughout the ruined room, twisting the air around him.
But Salomé didn't flinch.
She stood there, upright, ready.
As if nothing could shake her.
Lazareth, standing amid the ruins, screamed at the top of his lungs.
His black aura swirled like a storm.
Walls cracked, the ground vibrated.
— YOU'RE GOING TO FEEL EVERYTHING, BRAT!! he yelled, eyes bloodshot with rage.
He leapt at Salomé with lightning speed.
His shadow-covered fist sliced through the air.
Salomé dodged with a sliding step. Half a second more, and her skull would have exploded.
But she remained calm.
Precise.
Clear-headed.
She counterattacked with a knee to the ribs.
Lazareth grimaced and tried to retaliate with a shadow blade emerging from his arm.
But Salomé spun, leapt behind him, and struck the back of his neck.
— You move a lot, for someone who's going to die, she said coldly.
Lazareth, furious, spun around sharply. His eyes shone with deep hatred.
He conjured a shadow whip around his arm and threw it at furious speed.
Salomé cut it clean with a spinning kick imbued with aura.
— You think your shadows will stop me? she taunted.
Lazareth, panting, began to laugh. A desperate, almost insane laugh.
Then, in a hoarse voice, he spat:
— Your gaze…
Salomé frowned.
— Your gaze has never stopped haunting me… ruining my existence…
He advanced slowly, shadow pulsing around him like a black heart.
— But yet… I love those eyes!!
Salomé, destabilized by this declaration, lost her vigilance for a moment.
Lazareth took advantage.
— Too late!
A spiral of shadows shot out of the ground like a black serpent and slashed Salomé's shoulder.
She recoiled from the impact, a bloody mark on her skin.
She growled but stayed standing.
It was just a scratch.
He could have killed her. He didn't.
— Getting tired? Lazareth sneered.
— It's nothing, she replied.
She got back into guard.
They charged at each other again.
Blows rained down.
Fists. Shadows. Aura.
Dodges. Feints. Ripostes.
Lazareth unleashed everything he had.
But deep down… he no longer just sought to win.
He wanted her to understand.
Between exchanges, he shouted:
— Do you know what your name means to me, Satsujin Otoko?!
Salomé didn't answer. She prepared to strike again.
— When I was ten… they burned my house.
They killed my family.
And do you know what I did?
Nothing. I watched. I was paralyzed.
She stepped back slightly, uncertain.
— You're not all like that, right? Maybe.
But those I knew took everything from me. And no one lifted a finger for me.
He hit her. She blocked.
— I slept in the sewers. I ate rats.
And when I cried, people passed by without even looking at me.
He lunged at her again. She dodged.
But her movements were becoming less sharp.
Lazareth noticed.
— You hesitate. You're starting to understand?
You think I'm just a monster? Maybe.
But it's you who turned me into this.
Salomé stepped back. Her heart pounded.
She saw pain in his eyes, behind the rage.
She wanted to say something.
But nothing came out.
— I wasn't born like this! he screamed.
— It's the world, it's you, the Satsujin Otoko, who shaped me!
Salomé gritted her teeth.
— You want me to sympathize? she snapped, but her voice trembled.
— You think that's how you get peace? By hitting innocents?
— Peace?
Lazareth laughed bitterly.
— Peace… is for those who haven't lived through hell. Me, I just want it to burn.
They charged at each other again.
The fight had changed tone.
Salomé, though determined until now, saw her movements slow, her attacks become hesitant.
Her gaze was no longer as sharp, her aura less oppressive.
She still dodged Lazareth's furious assaults, but something inside her wavered.
Lazareth, himself, grew wilder, like a wounded beast.
Every strike he threw seemed to come from his guts.
— I DIED LIKE SHIT BECAUSE OF YOU!! he screamed, tearing the air with a shadow-drenched fist.
— Your family is a cancer to my existence!
I asked for nothing, NOTHING! But you appeared.
And I swear… I will kill you all to the last one!!!
With a furious roar, he summoned dozens of black thorns, long and sharp as blades.
They sprang from the ground in all directions, whipping the air, smashing the ruins.
Salomé leapt.
She ran on the thorns themselves, light, fast, dodging every point of impact like a tightrope walker on a minefield.
And then…
She appeared in Lazareth's blind spot.
She had the perfect opening.
She could strike him.
Knock him down.
End the fight.
But… she didn't move.
She stayed there, motionless, her fist raised… frozen.
Lazareth turned his head. Their eyes met.
He saw hesitation.
He saw that pity he couldn't stand.
So he struck.
A straight right.
Thunderous.
The blow exploded into Salomé's chest and sent her flying through the debris.
She hit a wall with dull violence, her body collapsing into dust.
— Don't tell me you're trying to get me with pity?! Lazareth roared, stepping forward heavily.
— Your family knows pity, maybe?!
Where's your damn predator's gaze, huh?!
LOOK AT ME LIKE YOU DID BEFORE!!
NOT WITH YOUR VICTIM EYES!!!
Salomé got up slowly, dusty, breathless.
But her eyes… were no longer the same.
They were dark, full of a mix of anger and deep turmoil.
She said nothing.
And that silence…
That silence made Lazareth spiral even more.
— WHAT IS THAT GAZE?! he yelled, trembling with rage.
— Where's the Tyrant Killer Man gaze you had earlier?! HUH?!
Salomé clenched her fists, tears at the edge of her eyes, and finally shouted with all her strength:
— I AM NOT THE TYRANT KILLER MAN!!!
The scream echoed like a slap in the burning air.
But Lazareth no longer listened.
— SHUT UP!!
— You're a Satsujin Otoko like him! You looked at me with the same eyes as him!!
He charged again, shadows unleashed like furious serpents around him.
Salomé took guard.
The clash was brutal.
Shadows spun around Lazareth like living tendrils, forming a whirling mass of darkness. He struck in bursts, unpredictable, wide, sharp blows.
Salomé parried, dodged, slid, retreated.
He struck with a shadow-charged kick — she deflected it with the back of her hand.
He launched a shadow spear — she split it in two.
But with every move, she hesitated.
She didn't want to kill him.
She wanted to understand.
— Why didn't you tell me anything…? she murmured softly.
Lazareth, enraged, screamed as he struck again.
But this time, even he felt something crack.