The next day arrived as the sun slowly rose from the eastern horizon, casting its warm golden fingers of sunlight over the sprawling city.
Jet woke up very early in the morning, long before the streets became congested with commuter traffic.
He quietly prepared a simple breakfast for himself and Inez, ensuring his sister ate well before helping her get ready for the day.
Once she was dressed in her academy uniform, he walked her out of the apartment complex and dropped her off safely at the front gates of her school.
Standing at the entrance of the school gate, Jet watched as Inez disappeared down the hallway along with a crowd of other laughing children.
Exhaling softly, a sharp glint flickered deep in his white pupils as he looked up at the clear morning blue sky. He adjusted the collar of his black jacket, feeling the weight of the massive digital balance now resting securely in his accounts.
"Now that things have been taken care of," Jet muttered, a cold smirk appearing at the corner of his lips, "let’s go and meet that guy."
The person he was looking for right now was not widely known to the general public.
It wasn’t that he lacked fame entirely; the artist was highly respected within elite, underground design circles, but his reputation had not yet reached mainstream celebrity levels.
He would only become a household name after the Second Red Moon forced humanity to realize the literal power of ink.
In his previous life, Jet had never met the man personally; he had only gotten to know him through historical news broadcasts, technical research documents, and high-ranking Awakeners endlessly praising his flawless work.
Thirty minutes later, after taking a high-speed transit line across the central corporate sector, Jet finally arrived at his destination.He stood before a sleek, minimalist three-story white building located in a prime real estate district.
The structure was pristine, blending seamlessly into the surrounding high-end architecture. Mounted cleanly above the main entrance was a dark steel signboard displaying a single, elegant word: ARAKAWA.
Jet smiled faintly, pushed through the heavy front doors, and quickly made his way up the stairs to the third floor.
The entire third floor was occupied by the artist’s private studio, and it looked exactly like a ultra-luxury, high-end design firm.
The floors were laid with polished dark hardwood that caught the ambient lighting perfectly.
The walls were painted a clean, muted charcoal gray, accented by strategically placed recessed LED strips that cast a precise, clean glow through the space.
There were no cluttered folders or messy counters. Instead, minimalist leather seats were arranged neatly across the open floor plan, separated by low frosted-glass dividers.
At the entrance sat a massive, monolithic concrete receptionist desk. The lobby was entirely deserted this early in the morning, save for a single young woman sitting behind the counter.
She had several silver piercings tracing the cartilage of her nose and ears, and a highly intricate, dark sleeve tattoo wrapped completely around her left arm, trailing down to her knuckles.
She was chewing gum with a bored, indifferent expression, lazily scrolling through her phone.
Jet walked directly up to the concrete counter and tapped his knuckles lightly on the surface, smiling calmly at her.
"Hello."
"Hello. Welcome to Arakawa. How may I help you?" The receptionist instantly tucked her phone away, smoothing her features into a practiced, professional smile as she greeted Jet.
"I’m looking for Master Jin Kuze," Jet went straight to the point.
"Do you have an appointment?" the receptionist asked, her fingers already hovering over her digital terminal.
"Yes," Jet nodded. "Under Jethro Saint-Clair."
A few moments later, after the receptionist scanned through the automated digital appointment list on her screen, she found Jet’s verified slot.
Her professional demeanor thawed slightly, and she nodded toward the corridor behind her.
"Everything is cleared, Mr. Jethro. This way, please."
The receptionist stood up and led Jet down a wide, soundproofed hallway toward a private consultation lounge. When he entered, he found himself in the area where the core structural layout and client meetings took place.
The room was designed for absolute comfort, furnished with a deep black leather couch and a low-profile glass coffee table sitting on a plush geometric rug.
The walls here were lined with framed, museum-quality canvas prints displaying intricate traditional iconography, complex geometric seals, and hyper-detailed anatomical blueprints of the human skeletal and muscular systems.
At the far end of the lounge, a thick glass partition separated the waiting area from a secondary, highly private consultation room.
"Please sit. I will go and call Master Jin Kuze," the receptionist said, gesturing for Jet to make himself comfortable on the couch. She served him a glass of chilled water from a sleek dispenser and quickly exited through the side door.
Three minutes passed in absolute silence.The heavy inner door clicked open, and the receptionist re-entered the lounge, followed closely by a lean, exceptionally tall man.
He stood roughly six feet one inch tall, wearing a loose, oversized black singlet that exposed his wire-thin but heavily muscled shoulders, paired with baggy brown canvas trousers.
He looked to be in his mid-thirties, possessing straight, shoulder-length black hair pulled back loosely, sharp facial features, high cheekbones, a narrow nose, and a slightly hollow, gaunt face that was clearly made worse by an atrocious, irregular sleeping schedule.
His skin was a pale canvas for some of the most remarkable tattoos Jet had ever seen. On his left hand, a highly detailed black centipede seemed to wind directly between his fingers, traveling across the back of his hand, curling tight around his wrist, and disappearing beneath the strap of his singlet.
The centipede continued all the way up the man’s arm, becoming progressively more intricate until its body merged into a massive, unfinished mythological composition across his upper back.
His right forearm contained several smaller, fragmented pieces createdat different periods of his career. Some were stunningly beautiful geometric patterns; others were strange, abstract symbols.
When Jet saw Master Jin Kuze walk into the room, he unconsciously straightened his posture on the couch, sizing up the man standing before him.
Right now, in the year 2075, Kuze was currently considered an exceptionally talented but notoriously eccentric, reclusive tattoo master, not yet the global legend he was destined to become.
In Jet’s previous life, after the Second Red Moon altered the global landscape, several of the absolute strongest Second-Generation Awakeners were discovered to possess flawless Divine Runes engraved exclusively by Kuze.
His reputation would explode exponentially at that time, turning his name into a myth.
Ten years from now, the highest-ranking combatants in the world would reverently call him The Divine Hand or The Hand of God.
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