The gallery screamed.
Not with sound alone, but with presence-walls pulsing as if alive, floors trembling beneath the weight of something being born. The mural behind Geijutsu blazed with sickening color, its painted battlefield tearing open as towering figures stepped through. These were no crude sketch demons. These were masterworks-fully realized horrors, layered with depth, shadow, and intention.
One carried a blade forged of splintered frames and rusted nails. Another crawled on all fours, its spine lined with burning candles that dripped molten wax onto the floor. Their eyes-too real-locked onto the hunters.
Shinzo staggered back, gripping his lantern. "These... these are Class-A manifestations."
Geijutsu sighed blissfully. "Ah, you noticed. I call them my Exhibits. Each one took a dozen lives to perfect."
"Everyone fall back!" Wataru commanded. "Defensive formation!"
The first Exhibit charged.
Riku met it head-on, blades crossing to block the monstrous sword. The impact sent a shockwave through the hall, cracking tiles and hurling debris into the air. Riku slid back, boots carving trenches in stone.
"Damn-!" He barely dodged as the creature swung again, the blade screaming as it cut through space.
Hana raised both hands, flames roaring outward. A spiraling inferno engulfed the Exhibit, but instead of burning away, the fire was absorbed, its colors bleeding into the demon's painted armor.
Geijutsu clapped. "Yes! More color! More emotion!"
The demon roared, now wreathed in Hana's own flames.
Hana's eyes widened. "It's using my fire-!"
Before it could strike, gunfire erupted.
Wataru's enchanted bullets slammed into the demon's joints, disrupting the flow of energy. "Adaptation confirmed," he barked. "Stop feeding them raw power-aim to disrupt structure!"
Aoi darted in, Nekoma moving like a shadow beside her. "Nao-support me!"
Nao swallowed hard and nodded. His Beast Dog manifested again, charging alongside Nekoma. Together, they struck the candle-spined Exhibit, claws and fangs ripping into the waxen growths.
The demon shrieked as the candles shattered, its form destabilizing.
"Yes!" Aoi shouted. "Keep pressure-!"
A sudden crack split the air.
From the ceiling, a painted giant tore free, smashing down between them. The shockwave hurled Nao across the floor. He slammed into a pillar, breath knocked from his lungs.
"Nao!" Hana screamed.
Nao coughed, vision blurring. He tried to rise-but his legs refused to move.
The giant lifted its massive foot.
Time slowed.
Then light exploded.
Shinzo stood between Nao and the demon, lantern raised high. The sigils burned white-hot, forming a radiant barrier as the giant's foot crashed down. The impact shattered the floor-but the light held.
Shinzo gritted his teeth. Blood trickled from his nose. "Move... now!"
Wataru emptied a full clip into the giant's head, each bullet carving glowing cracks through the paint. Riku leapt, driving both blades into the fissures.
"Break the core!" Riku roared.
The giant collapsed inward, imploding into ash and fragments of canvas.
Nao lay there, shaking.
I froze.
The realization cut deeper than any wound.
Geijutsu watched it all with rapture. "Beautiful. Fear. Hesitation. Courage born too late." His brush danced across the mural again. "Now for the finale."
The mural changed.
A new image emerged-vast, intricate, horrifying. A demon unlike the others began to take shape, its body composed of countless smaller paintings layered together. Faces, landscapes, symbols-all screaming silently.
Shinzo's breath caught. "That's... that's his Masterpiece."
Geijutsu spread his arms wide. "I call it The Gallery Eternal. My magnum opus."
The Masterpiece stepped forward.
The air warped.
Lampmen Kuro and Mika were thrown back instantly, their lanterns flickering violently.
"Mika!" Kuro shouted, catching her before she hit the wall.
Shinzo dropped to one knee, lantern dimming. "I-I can't hold it back..."
Wataru's jaw tightened. He looked at the team-bruised, exhausted, terrified.
"This is it," he said quietly. "If that thing leaves this building, the city dies."
The Masterpiece raised its hand.
The walls peeled away.
They were no longer in the gallery.
They stood in a painted world-a twisted replica of the city, buildings warped like unfinished sketches, the sky an endless swirl of red and black.
"We've been pulled inside," Hana whispered.
Geijutsu's laughter echoed from everywhere. "Welcome to my studio."
The Masterpiece attacked.
Nao forced himself to stand, legs trembling. His Beast Dog whimpered beside him, wounded.
I can't freeze again.
He clenched his fists, feeling something stir-deep, instinctive, ancient.
"Wataru!" Shinzo shouted. "The core-look at the center chest! That's where all the layers converge!"
Wataru nodded. "Riku, Aoi-create an opening. Hana-don't burn, shape."
Hana closed her eyes, breathing hard. When she opened them, her flames changed-not wild, but controlled, forming precise arcs and whips.
Riku and Aoi charged together, moving in perfect sync. Riku shattered outer layers with focused strikes while Aoi and Nekoma slipped through gaps, severing binding lines.
The Masterpiece roared, striking back.
A massive painted spear impaled the ground where Wataru stood moments before. He rolled, fired, reloaded, moved-relentless.
Nao ran.
Straight toward the demon.
"NAO, WAIT-!" Hana shouted.
But he didn't stop.
The Beast Dog surged ahead, merging with Nao's shadow instead of standing beside him. Power flooded his veins-raw, feral, overwhelming.
His eyes burned gold.
Nao leapt, higher than he ever had before, landing on the Masterpiece's chest. The faces embedded there screamed as he drove his hand into the core.
"I won't let you use us!" Nao roared.
The painted world began to collapse.
Cracks spread across the false sky as the Masterpiece staggered, its layered body unraveling where Nao had shattered the core. Faces peeled away, screaming silently as they dissolved into drifting ash.
Geijutsu screamed-not in fear, but in grief.
"My art-my eternal gallery-!" He clutched his head, staggering backward as the painted realm trembled violently around him.
Shinzo struggled to his feet, lantern flickering weakly. "Wataru!" he shouted. "The demon himself-he's destabilized! His life is bound to the canvas behind him. Destroy the source, or he'll rebuild everything!"
The mural behind Geijutsu pulsed wildly, paint flowing like blood.
Wataru narrowed his eyes. "Hana. That canvas is his heart."
Hana stepped forward, flames burning low but steady, no longer wild. Her breathing slowed, control absolute.
"I won't burn it blindly," she said. "I'll end it properly."
Geijutsu laughed hysterically, paint dripping from his hands. "You think fire can destroy art? I was born from obsession! From creation itself!"
He raised his brush-what little remained of it-and the fragments of the Masterpiece lunged toward them in a final, desperate assault.
"Lampmen-now!" Shinzo commanded.
Shinzo and his two companions raised their lanterns in unison. Golden light flooded the battlefield, pinning the remaining demonic fragments in place, freezing the painted horrors mid-motion. The strain forced Shinzo to one knee, blood seeping from his lip.
"I can hold them... but not for long!"
"That's enough," Wataru said calmly.
He stepped forward, gun steady, eyes locked on Geijutsu.
"You made monsters from suffering," Wataru said. "Let's see how you handle the real thing."
Wataru fired-not at Geijutsu, but at the mural.
The enchanted bullet tore through layers of paint, disrupting the flow of cursed energy. The canvas screamed, splitting open like torn flesh.
Geijutsu shrieked in agony. "STOP-!"
Hana moved.
She didn't unleash a wildfire. She condensed everything-rage, grief, resolve-into a single, blinding flame shaped like a spear.
"This is for every life you turned into decoration," she said quietly.
She thrust her hand forward.
The flame pierced the mural straight through.
The canvas ignited from within, burning white-hot, consuming every trace of cursed art. The painted world shattered completely, reality crashing back into place as the gallery collapsed around them.
Geijutsu fell to his knees, his body cracking like dried paint.
"No... no, my masterpiece..." he whispered.
Wataru walked up to him, gun raised.
"Your exhibition is over."
One final shot rang out.
The bullet, infused with sealing sigils, pierced Geijutsu's chest. His body disintegrated into ash and fading brushstrokes, scattering into the air like unfinished sketches erased forever.
Silence fell.
The remaining demonic fragments collapsed lifelessly, dissolving into dust.
Shinzo finally lowered his lantern, collapsing as the light faded. His companions rushed to support him.
"Target neutralized," Shinzo muttered weakly into his communicator. "Confirmed... Demon Geijutsu eliminated by Hunters Wataru and Hana."
Hana stood still for a long moment, flames extinguished, hands trembling slightly.
Wataru placed a hand on her shoulder. "You did good."
She exhaled shakily. "So did you."
Around them, Nao, Aoi, and Riku slowly gathered, bruised, exhausted-but alive.
Their first mission was over.
And this time, the art would never come back.