Upper East Side.
Inside the garage of one of the luxurious apartments that Fisk owned, a black SUV silently hummed to life.
The automatic sliding garage gate slowly slid sideways, opening the path for the black SUV.
The SUV quietly began moving and stopped outside.
Wilson Fisk sat in the back seat with a thoughtful expression.
He looked out of the window, his eyes staring at nothing but visions of a grand New York.
But within those visions were tainted shadows—certain variables beyond the scope of his influence.
Or rather not.
Variables were meant to be contained.
And control was his strongest suit.
His large, fat fingers tapped against the armrest as he patiently waited.
A few moments later, the back seat door opened, and a bespectacled man climbed into the car.
It was Wesley.
Wesley looked in the rearview mirror and nodded.
The driver, one of Fisk's security personnel, nodded and revved up the engine.
"News?" Fisk said, his finger-tapping coming to a halt.
He was still looking outside the window of the moving vehicle.
"We managed to locate the eight women who were involved with the Russians and happened to be there when they were cremated," Wesley said.
Fisk lightly nodded.
"We thoroughly secured them and extensive interrogation was done. The accounts the women provided varied, but they had one thing in common: terror," Wesley continued.
"They said they didn't hear any screams, only the resounding gunshots and then, silence. It had all happened so fast that they thought it had been an illusion."
"Three women squeaked about the shadow being feminine with long dark hair and impossibly devilish. So we are working with an inhuman target with long dark hair," Wesley concluded.
"A female executioner of unknown origins, huh?" Fisk murmured as the vehicle stopped at a traffic light.
"Anything else worth mentioning?" Fisk inquired.
Wesley adjusted his glasses with a slightly tired expression.
"They said something about a man in a red suit who had helped them to safety, sir," Wesley reported.
Fisk finally glanced at Wesley. "The devil of Hell's Kitchen?"
Wesley nodded.
Fisk sighed. "It just had to be Daredevil. But he's merely a man playing childish games."
"Are the two connected?" Fisk asked.
"No. The mysterious woman seemed to work alone and didn't speak much even after saving those women," Wesley said.
"Hmm, not a woman of many words, I see," Fisk commented, slightly tilting his head.
"So it seems," Wesley agreed.
"What about the eight?" Fisk casually asked.
Wesley slightly adjusted his necktie.
"Dealt with."
"Good."
Fisk then returned to looking outside the window, at the city.
"Relay that information to those bounty hunters," Fisk ordered.
"I don't care if we're looking for a needle in a haystack. Double the bounty."
"On it, sir." Wesley nodded before removing the spare phone from his pocket.
He dialed a few numbers and began communicating with whoever was on the other side.
'A woman. It matters not. Those in the dark would finally have to reveal themselves,' Fisk thought.
He was also in the dark, but it was too soon to reveal himself.
New York didn't need to know. It only needed to be guided by his unseen hands.
'I will find who you are. To dare to not even cover your face and slaughter those under me speaks volume about your disdain for authority and restrictions.'
'Ash Devil, the clock is ticking.'
The threat of the unknown was eclipsing the city's development. His city.
But it wouldn't take long after overturning Queens.
"Sir, Nobu requests a meeting," Wesley reported after finishing his calls.
"What does he want?" Fisk asked, slightly annoyed.
"He didn't specify," Wesley answered.
"Schedule it for another time. Vanessa wants to meet me, and I can't be disturbed," Fisk said.
"Yes, sir." Wesley nodded.
"I don't think Nobu's call for a meeting is coincidental," Wesley added.
"They're always calculated," Fisk scoffed.
"What of Madam Gao?"
Wesley shook his head. "She's gone silent."
"It's hard to know the thoughts of Madam Gao. I know she will reach out if she needs to," Fisk said.
The black SUV finally stopped near a residential building.
While the bounty hunters used all their resources to find the mysterious Ash Devil, he would spend some quality time with the woman he saw a future with.
~~<>~~
Midtown High.
A history lesson was ongoing. The room was slightly dark as a projector lit up the front of the classroom.
Seol Hwa rested her chin on her hand, a slightly bored expression on her face.
'81%. The progress is still steady. This amount of spiritual essence is enough for me to fly, but I've no reason to do so right now,' Seol Hwa thought.
'Reaching the second realm, Essence Liquefaction, is all I should focus on. The framework's already laid out; actualization should smoothly follow.'
Seol Hwa watched the black and white film playing in the projected video with mild interest.
It was covering the World War II.
She had a rough understanding of the current superpowers of the world.
Almost every country wanted to assert its dominance over others through advancement of military technology.
What these countries did didn't concern her. What mattered was the weaponry they created.
'If an atomic bomb had laid waste to Hiroshima in the past, their current weapons would be miles ahead,' Seol Hwa thought.
As she grew stronger, her initial worries over those nuclear weapons lessened.
With proficient understanding of the laws or advanced fire techniques, a cultivator could simulate the power of a small sun.
'The power of the sun in the palm of my hand. That has a nice ring to it. Enough to decimate the US army, right?' she subtly contemplated as she observed the class.
Some students were struggling to stay awake, their heads bobbing from left to right. Some were being diligent, for example, Gwen who was scribbling some notes.
And then there was the boy, Peter.
He seemed distracted… restless even.
'For him to be like that—there's no smoke without fire. Now where's the fire?' Seol Hwa pondered as she extended her hearing beyond the class.
'So it's those cretins.'
They were being loud. She picked up on their comms.
"Fisk has doubled the payout?" a thick voice that reeked of cigarettes asked.
"Yeah. The terms have been revised. We now have additional info on our target. Dark hair. Female."
"Damn. How many bitches have dark hair in New York? Fisk's probably wasting his money, but who am I not to fleece him?"
"Keke, I thought so. Doesn't that sound fun? We get to harass as many dark-haired bitches as possible?"
"You're one crazy fucker, ain'tcha?"
Seol Hwa disabled her super hearing.
'Wilson Fisk. That name again. I'd forgotten about you,' she thought with faint annoyance.
How could she not deduce easily how Fisk had managed to profile her with some vague features?
The only loose ends in the grand picture had been those captive women.
She hadn't given a damn about whether they would save themselves after she had released them from bondage.
In her opinion, nothing had been wrong with her approach.
She had saved them merely from a whim.
Now Fisk had probably killed them to get minimal information about her.
'They can only blame themselves for being weak instead of running far away from this hellscape,' Seol Hwa thought rationally.
It was inevitable for prey to be caught in the crossfire.
There was no pity, no anger in her eyes.
Seol Hwa was mildly annoyed.
Was it because these criminals constantly buzzed around her ears?
Anyway, Fisk's dogs had nothing substantial on her.
They were going to be left empty-handed.
Unless… unless they did something stupid within Seol Hwa's vicinity or what she considered her territory.
'Ash Devil, huh? Who the fuck comes up with such a lousy title? Hmm… I like it though,' she scoffed internally.
It was then that Peter abruptly stood from his seat and asked for permission to go to the washroom.
His distressed expression about possible diarrhea felt comical.
The teacher instantly allowed him to go, for fear he might go atomic in the classroom.
Ironically, there was no reason for chemical warfare during class.
Seol Hwa watched in amusement as Peter Parker left.
'Go, spider-boy,' she mused, sensing a masked figure swinging out of Midtown High.
Some hooligans thought it was wise to harass randoms in Midtown.
Peter's spidey tingles meant he couldn't let them do whatever they wanted.
'They're surely lucky spider-boy pulls his punches. As for me… I don't,' Seol Hwa thought before retracting her senses from the scene.
If Fisk wanted the Ash Devil, she would come to him when she felt like it.
Under her own terms.
She returned her gaze to the film.
The atomic bomb went kaboom.
What was an underworld king to the Bloodborne Devil Empress?
~~<>~~
Yu_ner's corner:
Hi:)
Was scammed like two weeks ago so haven't been myself for quite some time. Wanted vengeance on the said person whom I didn't know anything about. Hell I wished I had a death note😭I'm healing now.
Hope y'all have a good day🙂
May read advanced chapters at: p a t r e o n.com/Yu_ner (remove the spaces)
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