The city never sleeps, but neither did he.
By early 2005, Rai had abandoned the name entirely. He was no longer just Rai—the orphan with a bank account and an old scar on his chest. No, in the darkness, beneath New York's glittering skyline, a new name had taken root. One born of fear, of whispers. The Red-Eyed Devil.
But titles meant nothing without power to back them.
Training in Obsession
Every day began before sunrise and ended well past midnight. His apartment was now less of a home and more a dojo—walls lined with paper targets, floors reinforced with yoga mats and scratch-resistant vinyl. A mirror stood cracked in the corner, his practice dummy brutalized and stitched up repeatedly.
He focused on three things: taijutsu, stealth, and chakra control.
Taijutsu was pure body discipline. Kicks, sweeps, blocks, redirection.He studied every martial art he could find on VHS and DVD—Kali, Jiu-Jitsu, Krav Maga. His movements were unrefined but brutal. His only sparring partners were sandbags and shadows.
Stealth came naturally. With Transformation Jutsu and chakra suppression techniques, he could walk behind someone without making a sound. He ran rooftops, timed silent landings, practiced staying still for hours at a time, blending into crowds or vanishing into alleyways.
Chakra control was the hardest. Balancing a leaf on his forehead had become too easy, so he began walking on walls. By winter, he was sprinting up buildings, clinging to ceilings, mastering movement like a ghost.
But this life of training had no end goal in itself. It was preparation for the nights.
Vigilante Work Begins
At first, it was just muggers. Low-level scum. He watched, waited, struck fast. If they ran, he chased. If they fought, they died. He was efficient. Cold. Word spread quickly. By the second month, he'd taken out an entire gang in Jersey. Police found them with crushed windpipes and broken limbs.
He always disappeared before anyone arrived. No one ever got a clear photo. No security camera caught him. Just red eyes glowing in the dark.
And blood.
Sometimes a lot of it.
The First Real Kill
It was a warehouse near the docks—a trafficking ring moving women in crates. He'd tracked them for days, using chakra-enhanced hearing to eavesdrop from rooftops.
He dropped in through the skylight like a shadow with purpose.
There were twelve men. He killed five in the first thirty seconds.
The others panicked, guns drawn. But by then he had already used Substitution Jutsu—a wooden crate took the bullets.
He moved like a specter. Blades dipped in paralytic poison slashed throats and knees. He left one alive. Just one.
"You—what are you?"
Rai leaned close. His eyes spun—Sharingan flaring to life.
"I'm the punishment that crawled out of your worst nightmare."
The man screamed before he passed out. When the police arrived, the women were safe. The traffickers were dead or crippled. And a message had been carved into the metal door:
"WE SEE EVIL. WE BURN IT."
— Red-Eyed Devil
The Name Spreads
The media got wind of him in late summer. Some called him a myth. Others, a terrorist. But the streets told a different story.
To criminals, he was real. And worse—he was watching.
To innocents, he was something else entirely. A rumor. A silent protector. A red-eyed demon in a city plagued by corruption.
Even SHIELD began noticing the patterns.
The Man Behind the Mask
Back home, Rai lived quietly. He invested in lesser-known but promising tech companies, slowly growing his wealth. Every cent funded his mission: armor upgrades, forging tools, buying survival gear. He lived modestly. Slept rarely.
His body was changing. Stronger. Faster. Chakra had become second nature, pulsing through his limbs like fire beneath his skin.
And he knew this was just the beginning.
He looked in the mirror one night, armor now half-complete. It was crude—made of reinforced plates stitched into leather and kevlar, painted dark grey with hints of crimson. Not just for protection. It was for symbolism.
He wasn't a man anymore.
He was a warning.
And in the shadows of New York, the legend grew.
[To Be Continued…]