Feilang

* Light Novel
* Anime

**Feilang** (緋狼, *Feilang*) is a freelance hitman operating in China under the name **Zhao** (趙, *Zhao*). He is Xianming Lin's best friend from childhood and comes to Japan looking for him.

## Characteristics

### Appearance

He has short, ruffled red hair and a scar from Lin running vertically over his black, artificial left eye. His right eye is brown, and he is usually seen wearing a black tank top that reveals the barcode tattoo on his upper right arm, paired with skinny jeans and designer sneakers.

### Personality

Feilang is a skilled killer. He treats everyone casually regardless of their age or position and is noted to have an expressive and cheerful manner when speaking, but there is a certain madness to his demeanor. He enjoys outwitting his enemies and putting them through depraved situations that reflect those he once endured. His rebellious and twisted nature is due not only to his horrific upbringing, but because he excelled in that environment. As a leftover scar from his harsh upbringing in the killer training facility, he has a deep resentment for human trafficking and anyone who partakes in that business, going so far as using sadistic methods to punish them, which is demonstrated when he sells the young daughter of a former trafficker.

He is also a kleptomaniac, compulsively taking spoils from the bodies and surroundings of his victims, whether or not they might be valuable or useful to him. His preferred weapon is a lancet, a Chinese sword with a curved blade.

## Background

Feilang was born to a prostitute and as a young child was used to lure potential clients into his mother's workplace. As males rarely bring in regular customers, he became a burden as he grew up. When his mother could no longer use him to make money, she sold him to human traffickers. He was sent to a killer training facility, and by chance, happened to hear the guards mention the final exam, which requires cell mates to fight each other to the death. He strangled his partner and staged his death as a hanging to exempt himself from the exam.

However, a new trainee named Maomei was brought in to replace his partner. Since he did not want to arouse suspicion by killing his second roommate, he decided to befriend and get close to Maomei to easily kill him during the final exam later. Over the next five years, the two supported each other so they could survive and excel in the academic testing and grueling training exercises they were put through daily. Feilang eventually formed genuine respect for Maomei and found himself becoming friends with him. The two made a promise to work together as an unbeatable team when they finally left the facility.

The day of the exam, their doors were kept locked, weapons were thrown inside, and they were instructed to fight to the death in order to be allowed to leave. Feilang played dumb so Maomei would let his guard down, and he used that opportunity to attack him from behind. Just as he was about to deliver the finishing blow, Maomei managed to grab a nearby weapon and sliced Feilang's left eye before stabbing him in the heart. Severely injured, Feilang fell unconscious and appeared dead. Maomei graduated the facility, while Feilang's body was disposed of. However, when the cleaner realized Feilang was still alive, he was given medical treatment and sold to a sadistic elderly man, where he underwent daily torture that other boys died from. Having been trained to handle torture, he faked fear and tricked his owner into letting his guard down before killing him. Once free, he began working as a freelance hitman named Zhao, receiving jobs from his mediator, Yang, and looking for Maomei.

## Synopsis

### Shou Wang Arc

Zhao enters the Beijing penthouse of Fu Jian Huang and beats the syndicate executive into submission. When he locates a wall safe with a biometric lock system, the man attempts to bargain for his life. With a voice recording of his name, however, Zhao has no need for the man alive and beheads him, using his voice recording, eyes, and a finger to open the safe and retrieve the virus samples inside. He takes a virus sample for himself before robbing the victim of his jewelry. As he departs the apartment building, he receives a call from his mediator and catches the next day's flight to Busan.

In Busan, he finds the human trafficker responsible for selling his childhood friend Maomei. The former trafficker looks into Maomei's history and discovers that he had been sold to the Kakyuu Association in Fukuoka several years before. Though the man swears he is removed from the child slavery industry, Zhao beheads him in disgust and gives his six-year-old daughter to Yang to sell.

When Feilang and Yang arrive in Fukuoka, they split up to look for Maomei separately. Feilang finds two informants in the city and tortures them but turns up nothing. From Yang, he learns that the Kakyuu Association is looking to hire a skilled killer. Feilang is personally offended that Maomei would not be enough for them, as they had undergone the same training. He asks Yang to put him in touch with the organization, offering to kill as many people as they ask for free in exchange for assistance in finding his old friend.

Feilang arrives fifteen minutes late to his meeting with Suzuki in Tenjin, acting casually and expressively and making the bodyguard worry about his capability. Feilang is aware of this, however, and suggests moving forward with his test. While he is displeased that Suzuki does not recognize the photo he has of Lin, he is satisfied with Suzuki's agreement to look into the matter.

Suzuki drives Feilang to Hakata Pier, where the Shou Wang's drug storage warehouse is located. The young killer casually strolls into the warehouse, where five men are unloading boxes from a truck, and efficiently kills three of them. He knocks the remaining two men unconscious and loads them into Suzuki's van, and he takes his time pilfering through the wallets of the dead men while an anxious Suzuki waits. Knowing that one man had time to call for backup, he does not have to wait long before the Shou Wang's killer arrives.

Shunsuke Saruwatari shows up to the bloodstained warehouse and attacks Feilang when the younger killer provokes him. Feilang manages to get the upper hand when Saruwatari slips in the blood, and to dodge Suzuki's bullet, Saruwatari throws himself into the sea. Feilang requests a cell for the two Shou Wang subordinates and approves of the cage in the Kakyuu Group's headquarters. He wakes the two imprisoned men up and throws two knives into the cage, ordering them to fight to the death. Feilang is excited with anticipation for the fight, but the men refuse to fight each other. When one picks up a knife and attempts to attack Feilang, he loses interest and severs the man's arm and head, giving the other man his colleague's head in a box to return to his superiors.

After Suzuki receives a request for peace talks from the Shou Wang, Feilang asks for the information on Lin. He is displeased by the lack of intel and the possibility that Lin could be far away at this point, but at that moment, Yang calls with evidence that Lin may still be in Fukuoka. Feilang asks Suzuki to grant another favor and give him as much personal information on individuals as he can. With the lists of names and addresses from Takashi Unoyama's office, he begins targeting men in Fukuoka named Noriaki Hayashi, a name that uses the same kanji spelling as Xianming Lin. The murders appear in the local news the next day, sending a clear message to Lin that Feilang is looking for him.

Feilang is invited to a dinner at a traditional Japanese restaurant so that Li can personally thank him for his assistance in handling the Shou Wang. During the celebratory toast, he smells the poison in his glass of sake and thrusts the drink down the throat of a subordinate standing nearby. He throws the glass at Suzuki and uses the opening to get close to Li, injecting him with the virus stolen from Fu Jian Huang's safe. While being held at gunpoint by Suzuki, Feilang informs them that Li has only one week to obtain the antivirus or die. He leisurely finishes his meal as Li is rushed to a hospital, and he orders Suzuki to drive him around the city and procure materials for him in his efforts to meet Lin.

In Hakozaki, Feilang kills the third Noriaki Hayashi, and he waits for Lin in the murdered man's living room. When they meet at last for the first time in six years, Feilang fills Lin in on everything he has endured since their final exam at the factory and admits that it would have been better if Lin had killed him. However, he does not resent Lin for his past actions and invites his best friend to team up with him again. If they worked together, they could live the luxurious life they had once imagined, but Feilang is surprised and disappointed when Lin turns him down. He is upset by the affections Lin has to Fukuoka and suggests destroying the city to erase Lin's attachments. Attempting to return Lin to his former self, Feilang attacks, but Lin escapes the apartment and flees. Through a listening device, Feilang overhears Lin's call to Zenji Banba and shoots Banba when he arrives to help, curious about what the other man means to Lin. He has both men brought to the Kakyuu Association headquarters, attended to by an underground doctor, and imprisoned. When they wake up, he throws weapons into the cell and orders Lin and Banba to fight each other to the death, just as he and Lin once had.

Feilang loses his temper at Lin's refusal to move and decides to target the other contacts listed in Lin's phone. He fires a poison-tipped arrow at Banba, but Banba serves the arrow back with a baseball bat. Lin shoots Feilang in the stomach, and Banba throws a sword and strikes him in the leg. Suzuki cannot let Feilang die before Li receives the antivirus and steps in front of him to take a bullet in the heart. The remaining Kakyuu Group subordinate carries Feilang out, where he struggles through the manor and out the back gate. Lin finds him stumbling down the residential street and bleeding out, but Feilang gives him his old carefree smile, knowing that Lin cannot kill him while held back by his emotions. Lin bids his best friend goodbye and strikes him through the heart once again. With his last breaths, Feilang tells Lin that he had always been envious of his family, his talent, and his life. His death brings Lin feelings of relief and frees him from the past.