A shadow hangs over Tokyo Dome—and Hanma Baki is falling into it.
After a deliberate loss drops him from Fighter to Apprentice in the underground arena known only as Shadow Line, seventeen-year-old Baki wanders the empty parking garage beneath the dome, haunted by the memory of his mother's death at his father's hands. The pendant against his chest is cold. The truth of that night is colder.
Then a woman in black steps out of the darkness.
She knows about his mother. She knows how she died—an
BAKI IF: Devour the Mother's Love - The Choice of the Abyss—The Mother's Death and the Hostage's Blade
The cold stone floor clung to his back.
Hanma Baki slowly opened his heavy eyelids.
His vision blurred. He could see the ceiling. A stone ceiling. That cold air of the Fudragon Cave.
(...I'm still here.)
The wound in his stomach throbbed with a dull, persistent ache.
Someone had treated it. Roughly, carelessly—just cloth wrapped around it as a makeshift bandage. The bleeding had stopped, but the wound was still open, and the cold air seeped into it.
Both his hands were bound above his head to something cold.
His feet, too.
The sound of metal scraping. Chains.
Every time he moved, a heavy clanking sound rang out.
"So you're awake."
A voice.
Baki turned his head toward the sound.
Shuzawa Emi was standing there.
The hem of her black coat brushed against the stone floor. Her long black hair gleamed lustrously in the light of the candelabra's flames. Her narrow, dark eyes looked down at him, revealing nothing.
Behind her stood several men.
Large men in black suits. Faulkner Group's people.
And then, dragged along by those men, there was another man.
A man in a suit, a gag stuffed in his mouth, his hands bound behind his back.
"That match—you should have won. But you lost. So you'll do it again. This time, a real fight to the death."
Emi's voice was cold and quiet.
"...What are you talking about?"
Baki's voice was hoarse.
"He's a target the Faulkner Group prepared. If you kill this man, I'll tell you Yujiro's weakness."
The man in the suit let out a muffled scream through his gag.
"Mmph! Mmmph!"
The man shook his head desperately, tears streaming down his face, looking at Baki with pleading eyes.
"And if you can't kill him... you know what happens, don't you?"
Emi slowly approached Baki and crouched down.
Her cold eyes peered into his from close range.
"Your girlfriend—Matsumoto Kozue. That girl, she's cute. If you can't kill this man, next I'll have her do the same thing."
Rage surged through Baki's entire body.
"Don't fuck with me...! For something like that, I—!"
He raised his voice.
The chains rattled loudly.
"No. This is for you. Everything is so you can defeat that man. It's what you need to become stronger."
Emi stood and signaled to the men with her eyes.
"Treat his wounds. But do not remove the chains. Until the next match, he'll stay here and think. About his own weakness."
The men began roughly wrapping bandages around the wound on Baki's stomach.
Pain twisted Baki's face.
"Think it over carefully. I'll come again tomorrow. When I do, I want your answer. Will you kill, or won't you? Or will you lose her?"
With those words, Emi disappeared into the darkness of the Fudragon Cave.
The men followed, dragging the bound man with them.
Baki was left alone on the stone floor, chained.
"...Damn it."
Baki gritted his teeth.
The wound in his stomach ached.
The chains bit into him.
The truth of his mother's death.
Kaku Kaioh's warning.
Shuzawa Emi's smile.
Kozue's tears.
Everything swirled in his mind.
(What should I do?)
No answer came.
On the cold stone floor, Hanma Baki simply kept staring at the dark ceiling.
---
How long had he been like that?
His sense of time was growing numb.
Only the pain of the wound in his stomach and the coldness of the chains told him he was still alive.
(Mom...)
He tried to grip the pendant at his chest, then realized his hands wouldn't move.
(Right. I'm tied up.)
Helplessness, regret, and anger mixed together into a mess.
(What am I doing?)
He had come here to defeat his father.
To learn the truth of his mother's death, he had taken this woman's hand.
And yet here he was, chained up, being forced to kill someone.
(No. This isn't how it was supposed to be.)
The sound of his teeth grinding reached his own ears.
---
That night, a girl stood motionless in front of a certain apartment building in Tokyo.
Matsumoto Kozue.
Her light brown semi-long hair swayed softly in the night breeze. Her large amber eyes looked up anxiously at one of the apartment's windows.
Baki's room.
No light was on in the window.
She pressed the intercom.
The chime echoed through the quiet hallway.
No answer.
She pressed it again.
Still no answer.
"...Baki-kun."
Kozue murmured softly.
She pulled out her smartphone and sent a message.
'I'm in front of your room right now. Looks like you're not here... Are you okay?'
The read receipt didn't appear.
She couldn't get the look on Baki's face from school that day out of her head.
His swollen fists.
The shadow hidden behind his smile.
'I'm fine.'
Those words had been a lie.
"Why... why won't you tell me anything?"
Her voice trembled.
The back of her eyes grew hot.
She desperately held back the tears that threatened to spill.
"I don't know anything. Not what Baki-kun is doing, not what's troubling him. ...But I'm worried. I'm so worried."
Kozue gripped her smartphone tightly.
The couple's strap on it swayed slightly.
"Please... stay safe."
With tears in her eyes, she left.
She still didn't know what it was that Baki was hiding from her.
But her instincts told her that whatever it was, it was something very dangerous.
---
Near the entrance of the Fudragon Cave.
An old man stood atop the stone steps leading underground.
Kaku Kaioh.
His long white hair tied back, he leaned on a single cane.
A small frame—less than five feet tall.
Yet his presence could be distinctly felt even in the darkness of night.
The old man stood with his cane, gazing steadily into the darkness that led below.
"...Hmm."
The old man murmured quietly.
"This cannot wait."
Emi's presence.
And an eerie atmosphere unlike the usual.
The smell of blood.
Killing intent.
And Baki's faint presence.
(What is that woman doing?)
Kaioh tapped his cane and took a step onto the stone stairs.
The click of his cane striking stone echoed into the quiet underground.
---
The main hall of the Fudragon Cave.
Baki, still chained, stared at the ceiling.
(Kill, or be killed.)
Emi's words repeated over and over in the back of his ears.
(Or lose her.)
Kozue's face floated up in his mind.
Her smiling face.
Her worried face.
Her face, on the verge of tears.
"...Damn it."
Baki poured all his strength into trying to tear the chains apart.
The muscles in his arms bulged.
The chains creaked and bit into him.
The wound in his stomach turned to pain.
"Damn it... damn it!"
He pulled with all his might.
But the chains didn't budge.
Pain from the wound shot through his entire body.
His strength drained away.
"...Hah, hah."
Ragged breathing.
Sweat poured down from his forehead.
(I can't move.)
(I can't do anything.)
Despair spread slowly from deep in his chest.
---
How much time had passed?
Suddenly, he heard footsteps.
Multiple footsteps.
Baki raised his head.
Emi had returned.
Behind her, the men.
And the bound man.
"Have you sorted out your thoughts?"
Emi stood before Baki and looked down at him with cold eyes.
"...Don't be ridiculous. There's no way I could kill someone."
Baki forced the words out.
"You can. You can do it. After all, you're Hanma Yujiro's son."
Emi slowly placed something in Baki's hand.
A cold sensation.
A knife.
"Kill this man, and I'll tell you Yujiro's weakness. If you can't—you know what happens to your girlfriend, don't you?"
Emi smiled.
A cold, beautiful, cruel smile.
"Don't fuck with me! For something like that, I—!"
Baki screamed.
"Your mother was killed the same way, you know."
Emi whispered into Baki's ear.
In that instant, the scene from that night flashed before Baki's eyes.
---
His father's fist.
Blood spraying.
His mother's final expression.
---
"Mom... wouldn't want this..."
Baki murmured in a trembling voice.
The hand gripping the knife shook.
"Now, choose. Kill, or be killed. Or—lose her."
Emi watched Baki's reaction intently.
Her eyes were cold, and yet somehow seemed to be enjoying this.
"Stop... please stop..."
Baki pressed the hand holding the knife against the floor.
The palm of his hand cut open.
Blood seeped out.
"It's useless. You have to choose now. Kill this man here, or lose the one you love. One or the other."
Emi's voice was cold as ice.
---
That was when it happened.
Gogogogogo...
A heavy sound echoed through the hall.
The sound of a stone door opening.
Everyone turned toward the sound.
"That's enough, Emi."
The old man's voice resounded through the hall.
Kaku Kaioh entered the hall slowly, leaning on his cane.
"...Master."
Baki, still chained, faintly raised his face.
The hostage man was still crying out.
"Mmph! Mmmph!"
Emi clicked her tongue and turned toward Kaioh.
"Master, you're too late. He's already stepped into the world of kill or be killed."
Emi's composed expression didn't waver.
"...What are you doing, Shuzawa? What are you trying to make my disciple do?"
Kaioh's voice was low and quiet.
But in that voice was a weight that allowed no argument.
The knife slipped from Baki's hand.
It clattered onto the stone floor with a hard sound.
"Master..."
Baki murmured as if squeezing the words out.
His mind, on the verge of complete collapse, was barely pulled back.
"I was giving him real combat experience. So he could put your teachings into practice."
Emi said calmly.
"Nonsense. What you're doing isn't the path of martial arts, nor is it training. It's simply forcing a man to kill."
Kaioh tapped his cane against the floor.
A clacking sound echoed.
"This is for him. All of it is so he can defeat Hanma Yujiro. You think so too, don't you? Under the arena's rules, he can't beat that man. Unless he experiences life-and-death combat, he can never become the real thing."
Emi didn't back down an inch.
"Becoming the real thing and killing people are not the same. You've got it all wrong."
Kaioh slowly approached Baki.
"Baki. Are you all right?"
"...Yes. Somehow."
Baki answered weakly.
"Master, don't coddle him. He's already come to a point of no return. I made sure of that. With your teachings alone, he'll never reach that man."
Emi stared straight at Kaioh.
"...What are you plotting?"
Kaioh's eyes narrowed.
"Plotting? I just want to teach him what true strength is. Just like you. But my methods are different from yours. I won't coddle him. I'll show him reality. The reality of kill or be killed."
With that, Emi signaled to the men.
"I'll leave it here for today. But Master, remember this. As long as he wants to defeat that man, sooner or later he'll hit this wall. I'll make him overcome it, even if I have to force him. Because that's my role."
Emi spun her black coat and disappeared into the darkness of the Fudragon Cave.
The men followed, dragging the bound man with them.
Only Kaioh and the chained Baki remained in the hall.
"...I'm sorry, Master."
Baki said quietly, head still bowed.
"What do you have to apologize for? You've done nothing wrong. If anything, you endured well. Not letting that woman's words break your spirit—that's admirable."
Kaioh began slowly removing Baki's chains.
"...But I hesitated, even for a moment. I thought that if I killed that man, I could learn my father's weakness. That's what I thought."
Baki's voice was trembling.
"Hesitating is not a bad thing. If anything, those who never hesitate are the frightening ones. You understand the weight of taking a life. That's enough."
Kaioh removed the last chain.
Baki's hands were free.
"...What should I do? That woman will come again. Next time, she might do something even worse. She might drag Kozue into this."
Baki covered his face with his freed hands.
"You must become stronger. So you won't yield to that woman's threats. And so you can protect the people who matter to you. I will teach you true strength. Not through that woman's methods, but through the path of martial arts."
Kaioh gently placed a hand on Baki's shoulder.
"Rest tonight. We'll treat your wounds properly. Starting tomorrow, training again. This time, it will be even harsher."
Ka
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