[BL] I Didn't Sign Up For This-Chapter 89: In Which Tokyo Gets Crowded (And Ryota Gets Involved)
The rift looked angry.
Not metaphorically angry.. actually, visibly pissed off that we were here. It pulsed with aggressive purple-black light, and the air around it felt hostile in a way the previous rifts hadn’t.
"It knows we’re here," I said.
"They all know we’re here now," Azryth replied. "Veyrith’s made sure of it."
I activated my X-ray vision, and my stomach sank.
The anchor points were nested again, three layers, just like Seoul, but these were reinforced differently. Thicker, denser, more deliberately protected.
"He’s not just adapting," I said. "He’s innovating."
"Wonderful."
Behind us, I heard Ryota say something in Japanese to his hunters. Whatever it was, it made them spread out slightly, positioning themselves for better observation angles.
Or better firing positions.
Hard to tell.
"Ignore them," Azryth said quietly.
"Easier said than done when they’re watching like we’re about to summon demons."
"I’m already here. That ship has sailed."
Despite everything, I almost smiled.
I focused on the first anchor point. Outer layer, heavily reinforced but accessible if I struck at the right angle.
I struck.
The blade severed the anchor cleanly, and Azryth’s power flooded the wound immediately, our essences braided together, preventing restoration.
Behind us, I heard someone gasp.
The rift screamed, and I felt the nexus on the other side respond, not just pushing back.. it’s actively fighting the closure.
"Second anchor," I said, watching it appear through my X-ray vision. "Ten seconds."
Azryth’s power surged, creating a barrier between me and the rift.
I counted down.
Ten seconds.
Strike.
The second layer severed, Azryth’s essence joined mine, sealing the wound.
More gasps from behind us.
"What are they seeing?" I muttered.
"The binding work, probably," Azryth said. "Most hunters have never seen synchronized warden-demon essence manipulation."
"Is it impressive?"
"Apparently."
The rift pulsed violently, and then it did what I’d started to expect.
It tore itself wider.
Much wider than Seoul or Shanghai.
And enforcers poured through.
Not twenty. Not thirty. Not even forty.
At least fifty, maybe more, all materializing directly between us and the rift because apparently that was just standard operating procedure now.
"Oh, come on!" I shouted.
Behind us, Ryota’s voice cut through the chaos. "Defensive positions!"
The coalition hunters moved immediately, weapons up, forming a line between us and the approaching enforcers.
"What are you doing?" Azryth called back.
"Our job!" Ryota replied, and there was something almost amused in his voice. "You close the rift, we’ll handle the welcome committee!"
His hunters engaged the enforcers with a precision that made it clear they’d done this before. Not closing rifts, maybe, but fighting supernatural threats.
Kelvin, Serra, and Kade joined them immediately, and the tunnel erupted into chaos.
"Third anchor!" I said, turning back to the rift. "We need to close this now!"
The core anchor point appeared, vulnerable for maybe five seconds.
But the enforcers kept coming, pouring through faster than both teams could eliminate them.
One broke through the line, heading straight for me.
I carved through it with the spectral blade, X-ray vision showing me exactly where to strike.
Two more got past.
Azryth caught them both with a blast of power, but he was already strained from maintaining our essence work on the rift.
"Riven!" Ryota appeared beside us, his blade glowing with warden energy. "Close it!"
He moved between me and the approaching enforcers with movements that were refined, practiced, deadly.
"You said you were here to observe!" I shouted.
"I lied!" He struck down an enforcer that got too close. "Observation complete, your technique works! Now close the damn rift before we all die!"
The core anchor aligned.
I channeled everything into the blade, not just my power, not just Azryth’s, but the rage that had worked in Shanghai, the determination from Seoul, the absolute refusal to let Veyrith win.
The blade blazed white-hot.
I struck the core anchor with everything we had.
The rift didn’t just close.
It collapsed inward with enough force to create a pressure wave that knocked everyone back a step. Every enforcer that had come through, all fifty-plus of them, got sucked back through the tear before it sealed completely.
Then silence.
Deafening, ringing silence.
I was on my knees, I realized distantly. The blade had dissolved from my grip, every muscle in my body felt like it was made of lead.
Azryth was beside me, also breathing hard, his hand on my shoulder keeping me upright.
"You alright?" he asked.
"Define alright."
"Conscious and not bleeding."
"Then yes. Barely."
Ryota approached, sheathing his own weapon, a standard warden-forged blade, not manifested from power like mine. He looked between us with an expression I couldn’t quite read.
"That was..." he started.
"Corrupted?" I supplied wearily.
"Extraordinary." He gestured to where the rift had been. "I’ve never seen anything like it. The synchronization, the precision, the sheer power output." He looked at Azryth. "You’re not corrupting warden techniques, you’re enhancing them."
"Told you," I muttered.
"The coalition needs to know about this," Ryota continued. "If your method can be taught to other hunter-demon partnerships..."
"It can’t," Azryth interrupted. "Our binding is unique, the synchronization requires a level of integration that most wardens and demons can’t achieve."
"But theoretically..."
"Theoretically doesn’t matter when we have more rifts to close and days to do it." I finally managed to stand, though Azryth had to steady me. "We don’t have time to teach your coalition anything."
Ryota studied me for a long moment. "Fair enough, but the cessation agreement holds. More than holds, the coalition will support your efforts going forward."
"Support how?" Azryth asked suspiciously.
"Information sharing, resource allocation, defensive support at rift sites." Ryota gestured to his hunters, who were checking each other for injuries. "We can’t close rifts like you can, but we can keep the enforcers off your back while you work."
It was a good offer, tactically sound.
But something in the way Ryota was looking at me made the hair on the back of my neck stand up.
Not hostile, not threatening.
Just... interested.
Through the binding, I felt Azryth’s reaction, a spike of something sharp and possessive that he immediately tried to suppress.
"We’ll consider it," Azryth said, his voice carefully neutral. "Right now, we need to get back."
Together, we pulled on the key, and the portal opened back to the safehouse.
"Wait," Ryota said, and there was his hand on my arm, just a light touch, steadying. "...You’re exhausted, are you sure you can manage portal travel safely?"
"I’m fine," I said, even though I was pretty sure I’d collapse the moment we got back.
"If you say so." But Ryota didn’t immediately remove his hand. "We’ll be in touch about coordination efforts."
Azryth stepped closer to me, his hand finding my waist. "We’ll reach out if we need assistance."
The territorial undertone was impossible to miss.
Ryota’s eyes flicked between us, and something like understanding crossed his face. He removed his hand from my arm, stepping back slightly.
"Of course. Safe travels."
We stepped through the portal, and the moment we were in the safehouse, I felt the binding practically vibrating with Azryth’s suppressed irritation.
"He touched you," Azryth said.
"He was being helpful."
"He was being familiar."
"He was making sure I didn’t fall over!" But I couldn’t quite keep the amusement out of my voice.
Henrik looked up from his monitoring station, took one look at us, and raised an eyebrow. "Eleven rifts closed manually, the Coastal Asia cluster just collapsed, three more sealed automatically."
"Fourteen total," Mara said, updating her tablet. "Thirty-five to go."
I pulled up the map knowledge, watching the cluster’s collapse in real-time. Three rifts closed by us directly in this cluster, three more sealed by the field collapse, plus the seven from Eastern Europe.
Fourteen rifts closed.
Real, measurable progress.
"Good work," Henrik said.
I felt Azryth’s possessive irritation finally start to fade, replaced by satisfaction at the success.
Fourteen rifts down.
Thirty-five to go.
