"Kill him!" Riku roared.
A mercenary lunged at Hayato, drawing a jagged dagger and slashing directly for his throat. Without missing a beat, Hayato snapped his leg upward, kicking the man's forearm aside before launching his other foot into the guy's chest, sending him crashing through a row of dining tables.
Hayato wiped his mouth with a lazy smirk. "Man... it's been way too long since I fought someone."
"Die, brat!" another masked operative yelled, diving forward with a steel broadsword.
Hayato smiled. In the blink of an eye, a sickening squelch echoed through the hall. The mercenary's arm—still holding the sword—severed clean at the elbow and hit the floor, followed by his agonizing scream.
Hayato casually flexed the wooden chopsticks between his fingers. Crimson droplets dripped off the polished wood.
"He... he sliced through a limb with a pair of chopsticks?" Riku muttered, his jaw tightening. Beside him, Renji and Yui exchanged a tense, approving nod.
A third assassin tried to blindside Hayato from behind. Hayato ducked under the swinging blade, grabbed the attacker by the collar, and slammed his face face-first into the untouched sushi platter, breaking the heavy wooden table in half.
"Attack him all at once, you idiots!" Renji bellowed from the back.
"Will you stop screaming?" Hayato complained, spinning around as a wave of armored mercenaries swarmed him. "You're distracting me."
Using the splintered remnants of the broken table, Hayato kicked sharp wooden shards through the air like thrown daggers, pinpointing the vital points of the incoming attackers.
Two men closed in on his flank. Hayato drove a palm strike straight into the first man's nose, grabbed him by his tactical vest, and spun him around like a human shield to block a flurry of incoming sword strikes. Using the hostage's free arm, Hayato guided the man's sword to cut down his own comrades.
"This guy is a complete freak!" one of the mercenaries screamed in terror.
Hayato hoisted the terrified man over his shoulder and hurled him directly at the trio.
Riku, Renji, and Yui stood frozen, watching Hayato turn the entire restaurant into a slaughterhouse. He yanked the hoods over assassins' eyes, leaving them blinded to accidentally slash their own men, then snatched up a fallen katana to methodically carve a path through the crowd.
"He's good," Renji admitted, his brow furrowed.
"He's a Yamamoto—of course he's good," Riku grunted. "But he can't handle all three of us."
Yui's hand hovered over the hilt of her sword. "Let's put an end to this."
"Hold on," Renji interjected, stepping forward. "Let me break the kid myself."
Riku raised an eyebrow. "Are you sure you can handle him, old man?"
"He's nothing but a arrogant brat," Renji spat, surging forward into the chaos.
A split second later, Renji let out a battle cry and delivered a heavy punch toward Hayato's spine. The force of the strike shattered the restaurant's wooden door frame and blew a cloud of dust out into the street.
"Get up, kid," Renji growled, dusting off his knuckles.
"Behind you, Mr. Bald," a voice chimed in casually.
Renji spun around just in time to catch a solid wooden dining chair right across the face. The impact shattered the chair into splinters and hurled Renji headfirst through the swinging doors of the kitchen.
"How?!" Renji wheezed, rubbing his bruised jaw as he sat up among the stainless steel counters. "I hit you dead-on! I sent you flying outside!"
Hayato looked down at him with a completely dumbfounded expression. "Mister... you didn't hit me. I dodged right before you swung, and you punched your own guy ."
Renji's face flushed red with rage. "So that's how it is..."
He exploded off the floor. In a blur of sheer speed, Renji closed the distance and launched a deadly straight right toward Hayato's jaw. Hayato snatched a heavy cast-iron frying pan off the stovetop, throwing it up as a improvised shield.
BOOM!
A shockwave rattled through the kitchen, shattering every glass, bowl, and window in the kitchen. Hayato glanced at the pan—Renji's raw power had vaporized the center.
Renji sneered, bringing his left fist around in a brutal hook. Hayato jammed the pan's metal handle straight into Renji's open mouth, following up with a heavy kick to his chest that sent the clan leader sliding into a commercial freezer.
Subordinate mercenaries surged into the kitchen, jumping over the counters. Hayato grabbed pressure cookers, serving trays, and heavy forks, turning kitchen utensils into lethal projectiles that dismantled the incoming attackers one by one.
Suddenly, Renji burst from the freezer, grabbing Hayato by the back of his hair and slamming his face into the metal floor. He brought a heavy fist down toward the base of Hayato's skull, but Hayato shifted his weight at the last microsecond, taking the impact on his shoulder while driving a sharp kick into Renji's jaw.
Renji stumbled back, spitting blood. Hayato lunged with a quick jab, but Renji ducked under it and drove a brutal knee into Hayato's gut. As Hayato bent over, gasping for air, Renji landed a crushing blow to his ribs.
"I'm sick of your games, brat!" Renji roared, seizing Hayato by the throat and lifting him off his feet.
Renji unleashed a furious, lightning-fast barrage of punches straight into Hayato's chest. One, ten, fifty, ninety-eight, ninety-nine...
As Renji wound up his hundredth strike to finish it, Hayato snapped his right knee upward, taking the brunt of the final punch on his thigh. Using that exact same leg, Hayato snapped a ruthless roundhouse kick directly into the side of Renji's head, shattering the clan leader's grip and freeing himself.
Before Renji could recover, Hayato went on the offense. Renji threw a chaotic flurry of counter-punches, but Hayato wove through them smoothly. Finding a split-second opening, Hayato drove a flying knee straight into Renji's nose, followed by a heavy left hook that slammed the clan leader hard against the wall.
Renji's head slumped forward, his eyes rolling back into his head as he slid down to the floor.
Silence fell over the destroyed kitchen.
Out in the dining room, Riku and Yui stood with their jaws dropped in absolute disbelief.
Renji... lost? Riku thought, his mind racing.
"I never imagined Hayato was strong enough to take down a senior clan head," Yui murmured, her hand tightening on her hilt.
Riku forced a dark smile. "Don't count him out yet. Renji's too proud to go down like that."
As if on cue, a heavy groan echoed from the kitchen. Renji dragged himself back to his feet, blood pouring down his face.
"Boss! Are you alright?!" a mercenary asked, running up to support him.
Without looking, Renji snatched a sword from the man's belt and ran him straight through, stepping over the body as he locked his bloodshot eyes on Hayato.
"Kid... I'll admit you've got bite," Renji growled, his voice rasping as a dark, suffocating aura began to radiate off his body. "But now... I'm going to show you what I was capable of in my prime."
Hayato rested his hands on his hips, letting out a long, exhausted yawn. "Blah, blah, blah..."
Renji screamed, surging forward into a blinding dash as his blade sliced through the air.