Kyoshiro and Yukina were in the shed, the young woman was sitting patiently while the cyborg was preparing tea which surprised her.
"Why are you making tea? I thought you were going to tell me about Phoenix?" Yukina asked confused.
"Because it's going to be a long story then, you better have something to drink." Kyoshiro passed a cup of tea. "But before we start my story, what do you know about Phoenix?"
"Well what I was taught in school, it was a pharmaceutical company that mainly worked on genetic modification as well as prosthetics to help veterans, but one day it suddenly became a private military company and that's how it imposed an incessant peace in the world." Says Yukina.
"And when was this change made?" Asked Kyoshiro.
"In 1976, why?" Yukina was confused by all the questions Kyoshiro was asking her.
"Just to know what they hid." Said Kyoshiro.
"What could he have hidden?" Asked Yukina confused.
"They hid my contribution to the creation of Phoenix." Said Kyoshiro which surprised Yukina.
"What are you talking about? Phoenix is more than 50 years old you can't have created it!" Said Yukina.
"Tell me the name of the CEO of Phoenix then?" Kyoshiro asked in a cold tone.
"Stop asking mysterious questions and tell me the truth about Phoenix! Yukina ordered impatiently.
"Answer this last question." Kyoshiro ordered in a calm tone.
" ... It's Dan Komogawa, but I don't see-" Yukina had a revelation that made her blood run cold. "Dan Komogawa... Komogawa just like you... "
"Exactly, Dan is my little brother." Said Kyoshiro.
"But how is that possible?! That would mean that you and grandpa are the same age! Why do you look so young?!" Yukina was completely surprised by this news.
"Calm down, I'll tell you everything. Kyoshiro said, "Phoenix was created when Dan and I decided to combine our skills, my knowledge of medicine and toxicology, and his business skills. In less than two years we managed to be at the top of the Japanese pharmaceutical companies, Dan was the CEO and the face of the company while I was the brain behind most of the drugs we produced."
"Doesn't explain why you look so young?" Yukina questioned.
"Anti-aging serum, one of our biggest successes, in small regular doses you can stay at the age you are when administered." Explained Kyoshiro, "Not only externally, but also internally, it's like staying in a time bubble. Without the ingredients that the Professor discovered, this serum would have been impossible to create."
"The Professor?" Yukina asked confused.
Kyoshiro pulled out the picture and pointed to the tall older man. "Shiryu Emoto, my mentor, he taught me everything I know about medicine. A genius in the field of grafts and prosthetics."
"I know the one in the suit and who's around the same height as you is Dan, but who are the other two then?" Yukina questioned curiously.
"The kid is Jack, Dan's adopted son and the woman's name is Koto Sei, she was also part of the science team with me and the Professor." Kyoshiro pointed to their faces in the picture.
"But what did they do to make you want them dead?" Yukina asked.
"Simple... They took away my business, they took away my dreams, my ideals and most importantly, they stole my arms and legs." Kyoshiro's expression was filled with hatred as he broke his teacup in his hand in anger.
"Why did they do that?" Yukina was becoming more and more intrigued by Kyoshiro.
"The same reason every person in this world has... money and power. They mutilated me, left me for dead and then experimented on me all in the name of money." Kyoshiro explained.
In 1976, Kyoshiro was in his laboratory working on what appeared to be a pair of mechanical legs with a huge pair of protective glasses. Thoughtful in his work, Kyoshiro did not notice Dan's arrival.
"What are you doing here, at this hour?" Dan asked, bringing Kyoshiro out of his bubble.
Kyoshiro raised his glasses and said. "I'm sorry, I'm working on the new model, there are still some problems, but I think we'll be able to release it next month."
"That's great and it's actually pretty cool that you're still here, I needed to talk to you about something." Says Dan.
"What is it?" Asked Kyoshiro.
"We got a new contract from the army, they want a new type of prosthesis for soldiers." Said Dan.
"I'll work on it right away." Says Kyoshiro.
"No, it's a little different this time, they want the prosthesis to have weapons built into it." Said Dan.
"Sorry but it's no, I don't want to create a weapon." Kyoshiro replied.
"Imagine how much money we will make with this kind of contract." Said Dan.
Kyoshiro tapped his fist on the table. "My prosthetics are made to heal people or just help them! Not make victims!"
"Tsk! Unable to see beyond the tip of his nose! One must make weapons to be able to heal in addition!" Said Dan with a smile that surprised and scared Kyoshiro.
"You want us to be the origin of the problem as well as the solution?" Kyoshiro asked confused. "No! It's completely unhuman what you are asking me to do!" Kyoshiro stood up annoyed by his brother's attitude. "Seriously what made you think that I would accept this kind of job!"
"For the reputation! Just imagine! With this kind of contract we will gain more importance in the medical field but also in the military field which will be interesting for other countries and we will be able to attract even more people! Isn't that what you want?" Dan asked.
"What I want is to heal people and not to make victims!" Said Kyoshiro annoyed. "You know what we'll talk about this tomorrow, I'm too tired to talk about this!"
Kyoshiro was about to leave when all of a sudden his vision began to blur, his muscles seemed to weaken to the point that he fell to the ground.
"What's going on?" questioned Kyoshiro confused and weakened.
"Chloroform, I had it broadcast throughout the floor..." Dan approached Kyoshiro and crouched down in front of his brother on the floor with two small gadgets in hand. "I was supposed to pass you these nasal filterers, but I changed my mind." Kyoshiro tried to grab the filterers but Dan tucked them away in his pocket. "I'll see you when you wake up."
"Bastard..." Said Kyoshiro before falling unconscious to the ground.
When Kyoshiro woke up, he was tied to a warehouse pole with his arms stretched out to the sides. He seemed to be tied not by what appeared to be ropes, but by fishing line that cut his skin which was exposed. The warehouse was filled with various products. After a few minutes of waiting, Kyoshiro saw Dan arrive accompanied by three people. The first person was a young woman with short red hair and brown eyes. She had a completely neutral expression, as if she showed absolutely no emotion. She was wearing a skirt, a beige sweater and a lab coat.
The second person was a child, he had short blond hair and black eyes. He had a huge childish and innocent smile. He was wearing a white suit with a red tie.
The last person was a man in his fifties and the tallest of the group, he had to stoop to pass the entrance door of the warehouse, he had long grey hair and blue eyes. He had a tired expression as if he had been awakened from a dream. He was wearing a gray T-shirt, a thick jacket that he had tied to his belt and thick cargo pants.
"Finally awake I see." Said Dan.
"Hey, dad! What are we doing here?" Asked the child to Dan.
"You'll see in a moment, Jack." Replied Dan.
"Release me!" Said Kyoshiro as he tried to free himself from his bonds. "I have no reason to be here."
"Actually, you do, kid! You didn't want to be part of the group." Said the big man.
"What are you talking about Shiryu?" Kyoshiro questioned confused.
"He's talking about the contract from the army, Kyoshiro. Dan told us that you didn't want to be part of it." Said the woman.
"Of course I don't want to be part of it, Koto! It's bad to make weapons! They only make victims!" Said Kyoshiro.
"Always a naive idealist... is really one of your flaws. Weapons don't make victims, it's those who use them who make victims." Said Koto.
"What are you going to do to me? Torture me until I accept? You are wasting your time!" Said Kyoshiro.
"We know, you're stubborn as hell, we'll just make you disappear." Dan's words froze Kyoshiro's blood and made him turn pale.
"Make... make me disappear?" Questionned Kyoshiro in fear.
"If you disappear, all the patents you submitted while working for Phoenix will belong to the company and we won't need you." Said Dan.
"You can't do that!" Kyoshiro tried with all his might to free himself from his bonds.
"Yes we can..." Shiryu advanced towards Kyoshiro and grabbed his left arm with one hand. "And we will." With a swift and violent blow, Shiryu had torn Kyoshiro's arm completely off.
The second Kyoshiro lost his arm, his screams of pain could be heard throughout the warehouse. Just as he finally stopped screaming, Koto walked towards him with a grenade in her hand, the woman put the grenade in Kyoshiro's remaining hand and pulled the pin. In fear, Kyoshiro closed his hand with all his strength not to let go of the grenade.
Koto put his hand on Kyoshiro's cheeks and said. "Only drop it when I'm far enough away." Before giving him a kiss.
As soon as Koto joined Dan and the others, against his choice, Kyoshiro's hand dropped the grenade which exploded and tore off a large part of his arm and his screams of pain started again.
Kyoshiro could only feel pain running through his body, as he continued to scream, Jack approached him. Despite the violence, Jack didn't back away in fear, in fact he seemed intrigued and interested. "Help me..." Said Kyoshiro as his voice was completely broken.
"No. That would be less fun!" With a wave of Jack's hand, Kyoshiro's right shin fell like nothing happened, his wound looked cleaner than the previous two, it looked like it was made by a bladed weapon.
Kyoshiro couldn't even scream in pain anymore, his voice was so broken from screaming. His vision was completely blurred, Jack turned back to the rest of the group while Dan went in front of his brother, suffering.
"Why are you doing this to me?" Kyoshiro asked weakened. "Even if it's for money... why?"
Dan whispered in Kyoshiro's ear, "If you don't know why, I have no reason to tell you." Dan stepped back from his brother as a truck pulled into the warehouse in reverse. "But before we're done with you, I have a little present." Dan opened the trailer which filled Kyoshiro with rage.
Inside the trailer were two capsules filled with a liquid that glowed a light blue color. Inside the capsule were two bodies, in one was a beautiful young woman with long black hair and in the other capsule was the body of a child with short black hair.
Despite missing most of his limbs and the huge loss of blood, Kyoshiro tried to free himself from his bonds. "I'LL GUT YOU SONS OF BITCHES ! I WILL DISEMBOWEL YOU ! I WILL HUNT YOU TO MY LAST BREATH ! " Kyoshiro shouted.
Dan could only smile at every insult his brother threw at him. "I couldn't let your family live without you, so let then join you in the next world." Dan pressed a button which released Kyoshiro from his bonds.
Kyoshiro could barely stand on his remaining leg, his body shaking so much he lacked energy. "I..."
"You're going to what? You have nothing left." Said Shiryu.
"I WILL KILL YOU !" Kyoshiro propelled himself forward like a rabid dog with his remaining leg, but Dan dodged the blow and with a single touch blew Kyoshiro's left leg off.
As he lay in his own blood, Kyoshiro could not help but smile. A smile that only a crazy man could have, a man with nothing left to lose would have. "Ah... ah... ahahah." His chuckle surprised and confused the group. " AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH ! " Kyoshiro's crazy laughter caught Dan and the others off guard.
"What's so funny? You're down, your limbs were ripped off and your wife and son were killed. So what's so funny?" Asked Dan, but he received no answer other than Kyoshiro's crazy laughter. "Answer me!" Ordered Dan as he kicked Kyoshiro, but he still received no response other than laughter. "Take care of his wounds!"
"What?" Koto questioned in surprise. "But why?"
"I want to make him suffer more!" Said Dan.
"Isn't that enough already?" Shiryu asked.
"No!" Said Dan as a murderous aura covered him, "He must suffer more!"
"Good." Said Shiryu without asking another question. The giant began to talke care of Kyoshiro's wounds.
In the meeting room of a large private jet, Dan was having a video conference with Koto, Shiryu and a man were present. The man had long blond hair in a ponytail and black eyes, he had the beginning of a beard and a pair of sunglasses in his hair. He was wearing a thick gray jacket with blue stripes, heavy cargo pants and a thick pair of boots. The group was watching the recording of Kyoshiro's torture.
"Why did you show us this, old man? We already know that." Questioned the man.
"It's simple, Jack... we finally found him." Said Dan.
"Where is he now?" Shiryu asked in a calm tone.
"In Kyoto!" Said Dan.
"So he was there all this time... intriguing." Said Koto.
"No, apparently he's only been there for a few days." Corrected Dan.
"But what is he doing there? Jack asked.
"I don't know, but all he's done so far is attack the entrance to the headquarters and beat up General Kurogawa." Dan pressed a remote control and showed the incidents he had quoted on a TV that was behind him.
"He beat Kurogawa? I'm impressed, according to the rumor, no one has beaten him since he joined us." Said Koto.
"But the best of all." Dan pressed the remote again and the video zoomed in on Yukina. "It's that he found someone to help him."
"Who is it?" Shiryu asked.
"Yukina Kuroriki, she and her grandfather run a scrapyard outside the city. According to a squad report, she and Kyoshiro met at an electronics store and Kyoshiro helped her during a surprise inspection." Explained Dan.
"Do you think he came to Kyoto to kill us?" Jack questioned.
"I don't know but we'll find out when we get there." Dan turned to the video of Kyoshiro killing his men one by one as if nothing had happened. "I'm very anxious to find out." A belt appeared on Dan, the belt was blue with a yellow electric pattern and the buckle looked like the mouth of a Jackal.
In the scrapyard shed, Yukina was speechless at Kyoshiro's story. She couldn't believe what she had just heard, how could his friends betray him and do such atrocities to him.
"Now you know why I have this." Kyoshiro said as he looked at his mechanical limbs. "And why I want to kill them."
"Let me help you!" Said Yukina.
"I can't let a child get hurt under my surveillance." Said Kyoshiro.
"I'm not a child and I can take care of myself!" Said Yukina. "I want to help you because I hate Phoenix! So if you can destroy them, I want to do everything to make sure you succeed!"
"What did they do to make you resent them?" Kyoshiro questioned.
"I have my reasons..." Said Yukina.
Kyoshiro remained thoughtful at this answer. "As long as you stay out of my way, I'm fine with it."
"Really?" Yukina asked in surprise.
"I have no reason to judge you, Phoenix must be destroyed at any cost..." Said Kyoshiro.
"Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!" Yukina took Kyoshiro in her arms with joy.
"Stop, I don't like it." Said Kyoshiro in a cold tone.
"Sorry!" Yukina let go of the embarrassed cyborg. "So, where do we start?"
"Since they're not in town yet, the only thing we can do is wait." Kyoshiro stood up and took out some plans from his bag."Go somewhere else!" Ordered the cyborg.
" ... Are you sure I can't stay? I want to see how your prostheses are created and work." Yukina asked childishly.
"No." Kyoshiro said coldly.
"Come on! Besides I'm sure I can be useful!" Said Yukina.
"Oh really? Do you have an understanding of human physiology and how to translate it to the mechanical level with advanced engineering skills?" Kyoshiro questioned.
"...No." Said Yukina confused and embarrassed by the question. "But I'm pretty good at building things..."
"They're not things. I make prosthesis, they must be custom made so that the wearer doesn't feel disoriented because of its size or weight." Kyoshiro finished his explanation to see that Yukina already had in hand the prostheses he had used during his fight against Yosuke. "Listen to me for a second, you idiot!"
"The barrel is not level with the sight, there is an error of one or two millimeters." Said Yukina while examining the weapon. "You can also improve the number of stings you can fire if you make the magazine surround the arm instead of being inside, it would also help when you have to load it."
"I can't do that, the weight won't be distributed evenly." Said Kyoshiro.
"You just have to integrate a blade inside the wrist, it will balance the whole thing and give you a way to attack if you run out of ammunition." Said Yukina.
Kyoshiro was surprised by Yukina's comments, he didn't think someone like her would have such mechanical knowledge.
"You can stay ... but you don't go through my stuff." Kyoshiro ordered.
"Great!" Said Yukina happily. "So where do I start?"
"Go get what I need to create this!" Kyoshiro showed the plans to Yukina confused.
"What is this supposed to be?" Yukina questioned.
"My fight with Yosuke gave me some ideas to make a new pair of legs." Said Kyoshiro.
"Let's start then!" Said Yukina with joy.
Yukina came out of the shed in search of spare parts for Kyoshiro's plan, while the cyborg began to integrate the criticism he had received from the girl into his prothestic. Yujiro had been listening the whole time from outside the shed and could only smile for his granddaughter.
"It's been a few years since I've seen her this happy, I have a feeling they're going to get along well these two." Said Yujiro before leaving for his garage.