"I didn't capture them," Keizumi said slowly. "I killed them all."
The man bowed his head and replied, "That's exactly why I'm even more grateful to you."
"Please…"
"Please, I insist. Accept my thanks."
Keizumi shook his head and stepped around the grief-stricken man. As he passed behind him, he said: "I'm sorry that this world, so corroded and sickened by evil, has let you down. If you've truly made up your mind, then don't give me this gift—give it to someone who truly needs it."
After a short pause, Keizumi added in an even tone: "If you're still hesitating… then cherish your life. I will prove to you that this world can change."
The slurping sound from Izumi's noodles had stopped at some point.
From her senpai's words, she had vaguely guessed something. She stared in shock at the man whose eyes had filled with tears.
"Thank you… thank you," he murmured.
Izumi watched as he staggered away.
She hesitated, words caught in her throat.
"Senpai… he's not thinking of…?" she asked cautiously.
"He's not the first," Uchiha Keizumi replied. "But when you see more cases like this, don't grow numb. The moment you go numb… your sense of justice begins to rust. And rusted justice… is a betrayal of justice."
Izumi was just about to speak when something suddenly slammed into her head.
Whatever it was, it had to weigh at least ten kilograms.
The impact made her cry out involuntarily, her neck bending from the blow.
At that moment, a strange-toned voice sounded directly above her head: "Keizumi-sama, we have a situation. My children discovered a buried corpse just outside the village. Judging from the condition of the surrounding soil, it was likely interred just last night."
Izumi froze.
The odd voice continued: "Many traces at the scene were deliberately erased. Whoever buried the body even staged the area to look a certain way. That suggests someone with professional skill—likely a ninja."
As the voice finished, Izumi watched in astonishment as an orange figure leapt from atop her head and landed on the ground with elegant poise.
"A cat?" she exclaimed, suddenly realizing, "A ninja cat!"
—It was an orange ninja cat, absurdly plump, like an oversized drumstick covered in fur.
And with that, Izumi finally understood.
No wonder it was so heavy!
Could that orange ninja cat really be Keizumi-senpai's summoning beast?
"Lead the way," Uchiha Keizumi instructed the cat. Then, turning to Izumi, he added, "Rookie, stay close."
[Whoosh—]
[Whoosh—]
In the blink of an eye, both Keizumi and the ninja cat vanished, leaving behind nothing but the blur of two rapidly retreating figures—one large, one small.
Izumi was so startled she didn't have time to think. She quickly tossed her ramen into the nearest trash bin and sprinted after them.
…
Izumi pushed herself to the limit just to keep them in sight. Though she could only make out Keizumi-senpai's silhouette in the distance, she was still able to follow—barely. She figured the ninja cat was probably too fat to run fast, or maybe Keizumi-senpai was intentionally holding back to avoid losing her.
After all, he was a jōnin of Konohagakure. If a jōnin ran at full speed, how could she possibly keep up?
Before long, Izumi had reached the outskirts of the village, where she entered a dense forest. There, she finally caught sight of Keizumi-senpai and the orange cat standing a short distance ahead.
"Whew…"
She wiped the sweat from her brow.
She was a little out of breath.
"Keizumi-sama, is this your new lackey?" the ninja cat asked, licking its paw while speaking in human language. "Your last two assistants couldn't even make it through a single day. I wonder how long this one will last."
Izumi meekly cut in, "Today's only my second day as Keizumi-senpai's student."
"Nya? Really?"
The cat turned its curious eyes on her and raised one paw in what Izumi could only interpret as an attempted thumbs-up. "You made it to day two? Not bad, girl! You've got potential!"
"Uchiha Izumi."
"Here, sir!!!"
She immediately stood at attention and shouted, ignoring the cat.
Uchiha Keizumi gave the order: "Go down and bring up the body."
"Yes, Senpai."
Izumi jogged forward and saw a large pit near Keizumi's feet. Its edges were covered in small claw marks, likely dug by the cat.
At the bottom of the pit lay a woman's corpse, caked in mud.
The woman's forehead had been crushed inward. Her face was smeared with dried blood, and her features were frozen in a look of wide-eyed terror, as if her final moments had been filled with disbelief.
Izumi jumped into the pit.
And brought the body up.
Thanks to yesterday's experience, she was far more efficient this time.
"Female victim. Name unknown. Estimated age: between forty and forty-five. Killed by a single blow from a blunt object. No extra wounds on the body—likely cleaned by the perpetrator. Definitely experienced. Most likely a ninja."
Uchiha Keizumi said calmly, "Tachibana Jirō."
"Nya!" the cat replied.
"Go to the Police Force. Have someone retrieve the body," Keizumi instructed. Then, turning to Izumi, "Rookie. Let's take a walk around the village."
"Yes, Keizumi-sama."
"Yes, Senpai… wait, what?"
Izumi hesitated for a moment, then nervously swallowed and mustered her courage to ask in a small voice, "Senpai, aren't we going to investigate?"
Keizumi replied, "Walking around the village is the investigation. Check your ninja tools—be ready to dispense justice at any moment."
Izumi: "???"
...
Over an hour had passed, and Izumi realized that when Uchiha Keizumi said he wanted to 'look around', he really just meant wandering idly through the village of Konohagakure.
She hadn't seen a trace of that professional investigative spirit she had imagined.
Nor had she seen him search for any concrete leads or evidence.
It felt like they had circled all of Konohagakure already. They'd even walked through the Uchiha clan district, and at one point loitered inside the Hokage's building.
Izumi followed along in a daze the entire time, utterly confused about what Senpai was doing—or what she was even supposed to be doing.
Just as she was about to speak up…
She noticed that he had stopped.
Finally!
They were no longer aimlessly wandering!
Izumi almost teared up with relief.
"Senpai, this place is...?" But her excitement quickly turned to confusion. When she looked ahead, she realized they were standing outside the compound of the Gekkō Clan.
Konohagakure was home to many ninja clans, both large and small. The Uchiha were among the most powerful.
By contrast, the Gekkō Clan was a minor one.
They had only about a dozen shinobi, inheriting the Transparent Release kekkei genkai.
"This is the last location we haven't checked—the last one that's still publicly accessible," Uchiha Keizumi said coolly. "If the culprit isn't here, then it must be one of the other two."
"The other two?" Izumi was even more intrigued. How had Senpai narrowed it down through mere wandering? And what were these mysterious 'two places' he spoke of?
"ANBU. Root."
Uchiha Keizumi's brief reply left Izumi stunned.
"Huh? Uchiha Keizumi! You cold-blooded bastard—how dare you show your face here!?" Just as he was about to step into the Gekkō compound, a furious voice shouted from the side.
They turned to look.
Two Gekkō clan shinobi, each wearing a Konoha forehead protector and a standard-issue chūnin vest, were rushing over.
They quickly blocked Keizumi's path, glaring at him with hatred burning in their eyes.
Izumi sensed the tension spiking. "Senpai… are you and they…?"
Before she could finish her question—
One of the Gekkō shinobi shouted, "Uchiha Keizumi! Stay the hell away! The Gekkō Clan doesn't welcome you!"
Keizumi's right hand had rested on his blade's hilt from the very beginning.
His gaze swept over the two with icy calm as he said, "Police force investigation. Unrelated personnel, stand aside immediately. Interfering with official business is obstruction. Those who obstruct justice… will be eliminated."
Though his tone remained composed, a wave of chilling, murderous pressure surged forth—so intense that it made Izumi's hair stand on end.
She noticed that Senpai's thumb was already pressing against the guard of his blade—
A centimeter of shining steel had already been unsheathed!
The two Gekkō shinobi also felt the crushing pressure. Sweat beaded on their foreheads, and their fists clenched involuntarily. Everything about them screamed tension.
And yet—
Rather than retreat, their hatred only seemed to burn hotter.
"Two years ago… it was the same thing!" one of them shouted, baring his teeth through clenched jaws. "You bastard stormed into our compound under the pretense of 'investigating a case'—and killed our clan head, Gekkō Yūichirō-sama, along with two of our uncles!"
Izumi's eyes widened.
So that's what happened between Senpai and the Gekkō Clan?
Yikes. That's not just bad blood—that's a blood feud.
"Uchiha Keizumi, you—"
"No recollection," Keizumi interrupted coldly, slowly drawing his blade as he stepped forward with deliberate calm. "I never bother remembering the names of those I've killed. Anyone who stands in the way of [justice] isn't worth remembering."
His gaze passed through the gap between the two Gekkō shinobi and landed on a shadowy figure standing inside the compound.
[Gekkō Seisui — Last night, in a fit of rage over his mother's favoritism toward his older brother Gekkō Hayate, got into an argument with her. Emotionally unstable, he killed her with a blunt object and disposed of her body in secret during the early hours. Sin Level: Red Name!]
The scarlet-framed text stood out starkly in Uchiha Keizumi's eyes.
It was one of the reasons he had drawn his blade.
"Three seconds. If you don't move, you die." Uchiha Keizumi didn't stop. "Three… two…"
"Bastard! You arrogant piece of shit! You think the Gekkō Clan will just—"
By then, Uchiha Keizumi had already passed the two Gekkō Clan shinobi.
With a gentle flick, he cast off the blood from his blade.
"One."
His calm, emotionless eyes stared directly at the terrified face of Gekkō Seisui standing not far ahead—eyes like those of a judge from the depths of hell.
At the same time, the sound of two bodies collapsing rang out behind him.
"Rookie, this is your second lesson," Uchiha Keizumi said coldly as he stepped into the Gekkō compound. He addressed the stunned and frozen Izumi behind him: "Anyone who obstructs the execution of [justice] is a dog of evil—an enemy of justice. Once warned and they persist… kill without mercy."
Izumi stared blankly at the two decapitated corpses on the ground, blood still gushing from the necks.
The splattered crimson had even reached her feet.
Her pupils trembled ever so slightly.
When she stiffly raised her head, she saw that Keizumi-senpai was already walking forward, bloodied blade in hand, still gently flicking off the blood as he approached a young man of the Gekkō Clan.
Izumi didn't even know what she was thinking.
As if possessed, her legs moved on their own. She stepped across the slick ground, treading through a fresh puddle of blood and leaving behind a trail of long, red footprints—following Uchiha Keizumi into the heart of the Gekkō Clan's domain.
A voice in her mind kept screaming at her—
Once you go in, there's no turning back.
This absolute form of justice Uchiha Keizumi wields—you won't be able to accept it.
And yet… she still followed closely behind her senpai's steps.
And she pulled out a kunai.
Clutching it tightly in her hand.