"Billy, my good brother, you are good, very good."
"You, why are you here?"
On the deck at the stern of the yacht, Frank Castle, like a ferocious beast, stared with bloodshot eyes at the dazed Billy Russo, his former comrade-in-arms, a good brother with whom he had faced life and death.
Previously, Frank had received a call from Bucky asking about Billy, and he was merely surprised, regretful, and a little suspicious; how could his former good brother have embarked on a criminal path?
But now he had to face his youngest daughter, who had become autistic due to excessive fright, his son, whose intelligence was permanently damaged and whose IQ would remain around eight to ten years old due to delayed treatment, and the blood feud of his wife.
Even if something happened to his good brother, Frank had no mind to care.
However, the one who asked him for help was Bucky, who had saved his son's life; it could even be said that without Bucky, his two children would hardly have survived, making Bucky their family's benefactor.
Frank could only come to repay the favor, and it wasn't even really repaying a favor, after all, this concerned his former comrade-in-arms.
Then, he watched Bucky put on a self-directed play, letting Billy escape, but planting a bug on him.
And then, he heard a conversation that made his heart stop for a moment, almost causing him to collapse.
He, Frank, was truly blind! To have considered that greedy beast a brother!
He actually tried to kill his entire family for the sake of William Rollins, a CIA agent who had smuggled contraband and killed several of their brothers back then, all for a bit of dirty money!
Good! Very good!
"Why, Billy?" The comradeship they had shared, facing life and death together, kept Frank clinging to his last shred of sanity.
"It was Rollins! Rollins forced me!"
Puff! Puff! Puff!
Upon hearing Billy's sophistry, Frank felt his face was so ugly and disgusting. Gritting his teeth, veins bulging on his forehead, he fired three shots at Rollins without hesitation!
Rollins fell in a pool of blood, chilling Billy's heart completely.
"Yes, I did it! I just did it for money! But what's wrong with doing it for money! Frank, this is all your fault! If you had cooperated back then, not a single one of our brothers would have died, and we would all have gotten rich together! This is all your fault!"
Facing Frank's devouring gaze, Billy's inner dissatisfaction, grievance, anger, fear, and perhaps a tiny bit of regret, finally made him hysterical.
"That's right, it's all my fault. I shouldn't have been blind, unable to see what kind of trash you are!"
"Then why don't you just die!"
Billy roared hysterically, charging at Frank!
"Ah!!!"
Frank actually threw his pistol away and charged back like a ferocious beast!
The two fought like two vicious wolves, engaging in the most primal tearing and grappling!
Alas... Bucky let out a silent sigh for Frank's ill-fated destiny, but had no intention of helping.
This was Frank's personal grudge, his blood feud, which only he could avenge; he either had to kill Billy, or be killed by Billy.
And the result, naturally, was the enraged Frank, who ultimately triumphed over Billy, who had been tormented several times throughout the night.
Bang!
The brutal struggle between the two beasts ended with Frank grabbing Billy's head with both hands, smashing his face down onto the glass coffee table, shattering the thick table into pieces...
Well, Frank also pulled Billy's hair, making a few slight frictions with the broken glass without much fuss.
It wasn't very serious; it just made Billy's handsome face bloody and unrecognizable, ready for a horror movie.
"Kill me... Frank, kill me!"
Billy said, spitting blood and barely alive. He knew his face was ruined; he didn't want to see himself now, he just wanted to die.
"...No." After finishing with Billy's face, Frank had even drawn his field knife and held it to his neck, but after a moment of animalistic panting, he sheathed the knife.
"Kill me! Kill me!"
"That's too easy for you, Billy. I want you to live, to wake up every day and see that disgusting face of yours, to remember what you once looked like! To suffer a life worse than death for it! Remember, this is all from me to you!"
"No!!!"
Billy let out a desperate roar, but Frank kicked him hard, knocking him unconscious.
After doing all this, Frank felt as if he had lost his soul. What was the point of revenge, of making his enemy pay with blood, or suffer a life worse than death? His beloved was still separated from him forever, leaving him only with endless regret and sorrow.
Bucky then walked over and patted Frank's shoulder but said nothing.
"Thanks, Johnny."
He had thought he was coming to repay a favor, but unexpectedly he ended up owing another. However, Frank was truly disheartened and discouraged, unable to muster any spirit or think about anything.
"Bucky, Bucky Barnes. Johnny is just an alias."
"...Heh, Bucky, that Bucky? ...What are you doing?"
Frank was surprised by Bucky revealing his name, but also somewhat enlightened; given so many miraculous things, it wouldn't be any stranger if he was the former World War II hero.
But at that moment, he saw Bucky walk up to Billy, bend slightly, and then suddenly punch him in the spine below his neck!
There was a difficult-to-describe sound of bones shattering. The unconscious Billy even opened his eyes for a moment, then spewed blood from his mouth and nose before passing out again.
"Oh, I think when he wakes up, he definitely won't want to see his face, and might even try to end his life. Wouldn't your request just now be impossible for him to fulfill? This way, he can lie in bed every day and see his face in the mirror on the ceiling when he wakes up."
"..."
Frank looked at the serious-faced Bucky, opened his mouth, wanting to say thank you, but felt he couldn't get the words out.
Indeed, history doesn't record everything about a person. Who knew that Captain America's friend, a World War II hero, would be such an unsettling guy?
But in reality, Bucky just didn't want to leave any future trouble.
Frank was done after his fight, but Bucky wouldn't let a villain whom he had provoked so many times, whose most cherished face was disfigured, who would surely be mentally unstable and three times stronger in his dark state after healing, survive completely unharmed.
Billy could go crazy, but he had to lie in bed, slowly going crazy in his fantasies; only then could he go crazy however he wanted.
Moreover, without this final touch, Billy wouldn't count as defeated by Bucky, and the system wouldn't give experience. He wouldn't let go of a boss with a name and surname that he finally encountered.
"Let's go, I never want to see this person again. I've had enough."
Frank looked at his former brother, now his enemy, and his own blood-stained hands. He just wanted to leave this place, but he didn't know how to escape the nightmare called reality.
ADVANCE CHAPTER AVAILABLE IN PATREON
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