Ran Jiuyi’s Past

“Let me tell you, when I went looking for that old geezer, I happened to find them in the middle of a meeting. I hid nearby and eavesdropped for a bit—they were actually discussing how to kill me.”

Ran Jiu’yi smirked. “Once I heard that, there was no way I was letting that meeting finish. I wanted to burst in right then and slaughter every last one of them. But on second thought, I realized there was no rush.”

“I think I know what you were doing,” Meng Shan interjected. “You wanted to listen to their plans to identify the Suzuki family’s remaining assets and forces, so you could pick them off one by one.”

“Bingo. You got it.” Ran Jiu’yi gave him a thumbs-up. “That was one reason. The other was that almost all the direct descendants were there—about ten of them. Combined with their guards and other hangers-on, it was a combat force I couldn’t ignore. If I had attacked then, I didn’t have a hundred percent certainty I’d win. Even if I did, Ritsu probably would have escaped. So, I let them plan.”

“They never noticed you?” Meng Shan asked, impressed. “You don’t exactly have stealth abilities, do you?”

“I don’t. So I put on some makeup, disguised myself as a Suzuki family maid, and walked right in.”

“That simple?”

“That simple. There were so many different branches bringing their own subordinates that day; I figured none of them could recognize every single face in the room.”

Meng Shan nodded in approval. “You were calmer and smarter than I gave you credit for. Based on your stories, I thought you would have just charged in head-first.”

Ran Jiu’yi let out a cold laugh. “Heh, why would I do that? To pay back the suffering Tetsuya and I endured, I had to ensure my revenge was perfect.”

Having gathered enough intel, Ran Jiu’yi began her systematic extermination. Starting with the younger direct descendants, she hunted her enemies at a pace of one person per day—slow, methodical, and cruel.

Within a few days, the family realized something was wrong. Ran Jiu’yi seemed to know their every move; she was always one step ahead, setting ambushes exactly where they were going.

‘There must be a mole in the family!’ That was the thought in everyone’s mind—especially Ritsu’s. In his eyes, a traitor who defied his authority was even more loathsome than the woman slaughtering his kin. Consequently, Ritsu halted all plans to hunt Ran Jiu’yi and turned the family’s entire might inward to find the non-existent spy.

But you can’t find something that doesn’t exist. Despite mobilizing every resource, they found nothing. This only enraged Ritsu further; he became convinced that the rest of the family was conspiring to mock him because they feared Ran Jiu’yi.

At this breaking point, several direct descendants—unhappy with Ritsu’s tyranny and his obsession with internal witch-hunts while the family was being picked apart—decided to smuggle the younger generation overseas to preserve the family’s future.

But the plan failed before it even started. Ran Jiu’yi didn’t stop them; she didn’t even know about it. It was Ritsu who crushed them.

“The old geezer had gone completely off the deep end,” Ran Jiu’yi explained. “I found out later that to find the ‘mole,’ Ritsu had planted spies everywhere within his own house. They uncovered the escape plan immediately.”

“The idiot thought the people trying to flee must be the traitors. He used ‘enhanced interrogation’ techniques. You can guess the rest: once the ‘Great Memory Restoration’ started, everyone confessed to being a mole. Then they started naming other ‘moles’ to stop the pain. In a very short time, without me lifting a finger, the Suzuki family’s numbers plummeted.”

Ran Jiu’yi’s lips curled into a smile. “The survivors were so terrified of Ritsu’s madness that some of them actually reached out to me.”

“Wait, were they insane?” Meng Shan asked. “You were the one murdering them.”

“I actually understand their logic,” Meng Shan added, answering his own question. “To them, surrendering to you offered a slim chance of survival. Staying with Ritsu offered zero. I can’t even imagine what he must have put them through for them to fear him more than their own executioner.”

Ran Jiu’yi pointed to herself. “Look at what happened to me in just one week. You can imagine. I definitely wasn’t the first person he did that to.”

“Fair point. So, what help did they give you?”

“Oh, it was huge.” Ran Jiu’yi’s smile turned predatory. “They gave me a perfect, isolated opportunity to take on Suzuki Ritsu one-on-one.”

One day, when Suzuki Ritsu woke up from a brief afternoon nap, he was shocked to find Ran Jiu’yi watching him from just a few feet away.

How did she get in? How long had she been there? Why was there no alarm? Where were the guards? Questions flooded his mind, but Ran Jiu’yi spoke before he could act.

“You’re awake. Wonderful. Don’t bother looking for the others. They’ve all run away and left you here alone. Poor thing. But you’re lucky—I’m here to keep you company. So… let’s kill each other.”

“That was pretty much it, then we fought. I have to say, that old man’s ability was like ‘divine possession’ or something. As soon as the fight started, he changed into a completely different person. He was… very, uh, alluring.”

Even after all this time, Ran Jiu’yi looked disgusted. “It was hideous. Can you imagine a sixty-year-old man looking at you with the seductive eyes of a fox demon? It was nauseating. I was too focused on killing him to care then, but looking back, it makes my skin crawl.”

Meng Shan tried to imagine it and winced. “That does sound revolting. So, you finished him?”

“Of course,” she said proudly. “He was much stronger than I expected, but I got him in the end.”

“I bet it wasn’t easy. He was the head of a major superhuman clan, after all.”

“It wasn’t. By the time I beat him, I had lost about 80% of my body mass. Our battle leveled nearly half the local city, and that was with both of us trying to keep it somewhat contained.”

“That’s intense.”

“None of that matters. What matters is I won, and I won decisively.” Her face contorted into something ghoulish. “Then came the time for his punishment. I tore his body apart piece by piece, healed him, tore him apart again, healed him…”

Meng Shan placed a hand on her shoulder. “Calm down. You’re losing it again.”

Ran Jiu’yi blinked, coming back to the present. “…Ah, sorry. Even after all this time, thinking about that makes me drift off.”

“You call that ‘drifting off’?”

“Isn’t it? My attention wasn’t on what you were saying.”

“I give up,” Meng Shan sighed. “Go on.”

“There isn’t much left to say. I pried the location of Tetsuya’s remains out of him, gave her a proper burial, and then happily sent the old bastard to hell.”

She clenched her fist. “Whenever I tortured the others, no matter what they had done, I felt a deep sense of self-loathing because I knew I was doing something evil. But when I was torturing Ritsu… that loathing vanished. It was replaced by this sharp, bright sense of relief.”

Her voice dropped, becoming lonely. “But that high only lasted for a moment. When I brought his head to Tetsuya’s grave, I just felt… I don’t know, empty? Sad? After everything, what did I have left? I had power, but my life, my home, and my best friend were all gone. I felt so incredibly alone.”

Meng Shan reached out and patted her head. “It’s a better ending than most get. You did enough. At least you destroyed your enemies—which is more than I can say for myself.”

“Maybe you’re right. Up to that point, it was ‘just’ revenge,” Ran Jiu’yi said. “But what happened next… that was my sin.”

Meng Shan looked at her, eyes wide. “You didn’t…”

She nodded. “I did. I hunted down every single person with Suzuki blood and wiped them out.”

“Including Tetsuya’s parents?”

“Including them. I wanted to spare them at first. But they tried to avenge the rest of the family by coming after me. So I killed them too.” She let out a hollow laugh. “Hypocritical, right? A ‘revenge ghost’ like me cutting off someone else’s path to revenge.”

“I wasn’t thinking straight. Out of some lingering paranoia, after I killed her parents, I spent another two or three months hunting down every last person tied to the Suzuki name across all their businesses. One by one. And when I was finally done… I felt relaxed. Exhausted. And bored.”

“It was like losing my life’s purpose. I didn’t know what to do next. Fortunately, two things gave me a new direction. First, my actions got me on the wanted list in several countries, so I had to run. Second, I met a Magical Girl named Chiffli. With her help, I started taking commissions… and eventually became the person you see today.”