At last, the day filming for the movie ‘Requiem of Iron and Blood’ began.

Inside the studio set, they had built an ‘abandoned factory,’ where early in the story the villain purges his subordinates.

“…What the hell is this?”

The moment I stepped into the set, I stopped in my tracks.

It was far too ‘clean.’

The rusted steel frames were arranged artistically, the trash on the floor was scattered in perfect balance and the lighting was colored in an illusionary blue.

Rather than an abandoned factory, it looked like a café or a modern art exhibit.

“What’s wrong, Jō? It’s a wonderful set, isn’t it?”

From the director’s seat, Hibiki puffed out her chest.

“It’s the art staff’s proudest work. We tried to express ‘the beauty of decadence.’”

“…It’s so beautiful it gets under my skin.”

I let out a sigh.

How was I supposed to do a muddy, grimy kill-or-be-killed on a floor this clean?

Crash!!

Without a word, I kicked a nearby oil drum.

The beautifully cylindrical drum crumpled as it rolled, slammed into a wall of the set and scraped paint right off.

“Kyaaa!?”

The women on the art staff screamed.

“W-what are you doing!?”

“The real scene is dirtier than this.”

Ignoring them, I scraped dirt under my shoe and smeared it onto the wall.

I kicked apart the neatly arranged rubble and scattered it messily.

Destroying the ‘beauty,’ injecting ‘rawness.’

“Ah… ahh… my work…”

Just as the art chief looked like she was about to collapse in tears, Hibiki peered into the monitor and made a startled face.

“…Wait. Keep the camera rolling like that.”

The cameraman pointed the lens.

The crumpled oil drum, the filthy wall, the scattered rubble.

On the monitor, the scene instantly shed its ‘fake’ air and transformed into a ‘real set’ that felt like it carried the smell of blood and oil.

“…Amazing. The realism is on a completely different level…”

Hibiki swallowed hard.

“Approved. Art team, dirty it up more! Break it rougher, just like Jō did!”

“Eeeh…”

* * *

After the set came the action rehearsal.

In charge was the industry’s top charismatic female fight choreographer, Kagura.

Wearing an easy-to-move-in outfit like a leotard, she began instructing me with supple movements.

“Okay, Jō-san. When the enemy comes, first do a gorgeous turn! Raise the knife high, wink at the camera, then cut in a smooth flow!”

She demonstrated.

Twirl, freeze, sparkle☆

…It was like rhythmic gymnastics or ballet.

Beautiful, but not a shred of killing intent.

“…Is this a kindergarten recital?”

“Yes?”

“Sorry, sensei. I’m doing it my way.”

I threw off my jacket and rolled up my dress shirt sleeves.

“My role is a mafia boss. I’m not here to dance, I’m here to kill.”

“B-but, action has to look beautiful…”

“Real violence has no waste, it’s a lot plainer… and it hurts.”

I beckoned to the sturdy female stunt performers.

“Come at me. For real.”

“Huh, but…”

“Just come.”

One of the stunt performers, holding a practice sword, slashed at me timidly.

I avoided it with the smallest movement.

At the same time, I grabbed her wrist, locked the joint and swept her leg.

Thud!

In an instant, she was on the ground.

No graceful turn, no signature pose.

I had simply broken her balance efficiently and neutralized her.

“When you punch, don’t stop your fist.”

Facing the stunt performer as she got back up, I raised my fists.

“Don’t aim for the surface of their face, swing through like you’re aiming to hit the back of their head… Like this.”

Whoosh!!

My right straight passed by the side of her face.

The sound of air tearing.

Just the wind pressure made her hair flare up in a flutter.

The stunt performer’s legs gave out and she slumped down.

Kagura, the fight choreographer, stared with her mouth hanging open.

“This is ‘real combat.’ Beauty comes along on its own later.”

* * *

And then, the actual take.

The camera rolled and the clapperboard snapped.

“—Action!”

At Hibiki’s call, the air in the studio froze.

I slowly raised my head.

‘Killing intent’ I’d learned from movies in my previous life.

I unleashed it fully and glared at the stunt performers around me.

“…Hii.”

Their faces tightened.

This wasn’t an acting plan, it was primal fear as living creatures.

Their legs stiffened.

“…You’re not coming?”

When I stepped forward, they lunged at me as if springing off something.

A defensive instinct to escape fear.

I dealt with it calmly, one by one.

Thud. Crack. Thump.

Hits heavy enough to not need sound effects 'of course I pulled them short.'

There was no wire action.

The stunt performers I threw with my own strength flew through the air according to the laws of physics and crashed into the set’s oil drums.

Destruction. Violence. Trampling.

What was there wasn’t a ‘dance.’

It was footage of a one-sided ‘hunt.’

After choking out the last one, I fixed my rumpled collar and stared into the camera.

“…Cut! OK!!”

Hibiki’s shout rang out.

In that instant, I erased my killing intent and returned to being plain Akutsu Jō.

Silence….

The studio had gone quiet.

No one said a word.

The entire staff had been so overwhelmed they looked frozen in place.

“…You okay?”

I held out a hand to the stunt performer I’d thrown.

“Ah…”

She took my hand and swayed as she stood.

Her face was flushed and her eyes were wet.

“…That was incredible. Just now… I really thought I was going to be killed…”

“Sorry. I scared you.”

“No… it was wonderful… Throw me more, please…”

…Looks like I opened another door for her.

Kagura, the fight choreographer, also walked up.

“I yield! My choreography was ‘play-acting.’ This is ‘combat’… no, ‘killing each other’!”

She pulled out a notebook and started recording the movements at a furious speed.

* * *

At the monitor seats, Hibiki and Tennoji Karen, who was waiting for her turn, were checking the footage.

“…Look, Karen.”

Hibiki’s voice was shaking.

“Jō on screen… he’s just standing there and yet this presence. He’s dominating the very space itself.”

On the monitor, he reigned in the dim abandoned factory as an overwhelming ‘charisma of evil.’

A hopeless wall, one that no number of beautifully dressed heroines could overcome.

That ferocity, paradoxically, looked irresistibly sexy.

“Film history is going to change.”

Hibiki murmured with certainty.

“When this movie is released, the definition of ‘cool’ all over the world will be overturned. Right now, we’re about to unleash an unbelievable monster on the world.”

Karen silently nodded, her feverish eyes fixed on me inside the set.

Day one of filming.

The common sense of ‘beautiful action’ collapsed and the set was wrapped in a new frenzy called violence.

Filming got off to the best start, in a way that far exceeded anyone’s expectations.