Chapter Six: The Night Demon

If you love someone, send him to New York, for it is paradise.
If you hate someone, send him to New York as well, for it is hell.
This saying rings even truer when the place in question is Manhattan.
Manhattan, the heart of New York City, boasts not only the world’s densest collection of skyscrapers and untold fortunes, but also, infamously, Hell’s Kitchen.
Hell’s Kitchen—a name that oozes chaos and darkness.
Streaked and mottled walls, iron doors rusted and shrouded in gloom, houses layered with graffiti upon graffiti.
Filth, disorder, decay—compared to the ever-glamorous, dazzling Upper Town, this place is a shadowy corner beneath the city’s brilliance, releasing all the sins of the metropolis into the dark.
Here, there are no towering buildings, no bustling business centers; those who roam the streets are either hippies or junkies, tattoos and marijuana their standard gear, hip-hop and rock their never-ceasing soundtrack.
Mention this place, and most people think first of crime.
On nights smothered by thick fog, the screeching of police sirens, laced with curses and expletives, fills the air, turning the entire neighborhood into a powder keg, forever teetering on the verge of explosion.
In the heavy gloom, a trace of silvery-white glow flitted like a firefly on a summer night, drifting silently through the restless, hushed darkness, weaving through Hell’s Kitchen’s dim corners.
That silvery-white light was none other than Gu Zhongyan’s Patronus.
The Patronus Charm, originally created to ward off Dementors and other dark magical creatures, first appears as a shapeless silver mist.
Yet some powerful wizards can give their Patronus a corporeal form, granting it the ability to leave their side.
Ever since Gu Zhongyan had managed to conjure his Patronus, he sent it out every night to patrol the corners of Hell’s Kitchen.
That faint silver glow slipped noiselessly through the darkness and finally came to rest before a dumpster at the foot of an apartment building.
He had found it.
In a second-floor room, Gu Zhongyan’s eyes snapped open as he lay on his bed. He sat up, a flash of delight in his gaze.
He crept to the window, peering at the silent church across the way, then carefully slipped over the balcony and leapt down, not making a single sound.

Landing softly, Gu Zhongyan dashed without hesitation toward where his Patronus had paused.
His body, enhanced by the strength of his mind, moved through Hell’s Kitchen’s alleys with the agility of a panther in the night. In just a few minutes, he reached the dumpster several blocks away.
Amid the reek of rot, he stood outside the dumpster, staring at something that simply didn’t belong among the trash.
A man.
A man dressed in a black knit shirt, covered in blood, his head half-wrapped, eyes blindfolded, lying motionless atop the garbage like a discarded doll.
Anyone with even passing knowledge of the Marvel universe would recognize this classic figure at a glance.
Daredevil—Matt Murdock.
Daredevil, full name Matthew Michael Murdock, was abandoned by his mother as a child and raised by his father, Jack Murdock, a boxer nicknamed “Battlin’ Jack.” Growing up, he realized the importance of rules to restrain people’s actions, and resolved to study law.
Once, Matt saved a blind man from an oncoming truck, but in doing so, was doused in radioactive material spilled from the vehicle, blinding him—but also greatly enhancing his other senses.
Later, under the harsh training of the blind martial arts master known as Stick, Matt mastered his heightened senses and became a formidable warrior.
By day, Matt was a lawyer; by night, he donned a mask and became Daredevil, fighting crime and upholding justice in Hell’s Kitchen.
Yet judging by his incomplete costume, he had not yet earned the name Daredevil.
For days now, Gu Zhongyan had sent out his Patronus each night for the sole purpose of finding this future superhero.
To strengthen himself as much as possible, he needed to find the right supernatural force to create a wand.
But at present, the magical powers he could command were pitifully few. Beyond Occlumency and the Patronus Charm—both spells reliant on mental strength—he could do very little.
Thus, he needed allies to help him obtain what he sought.
Daredevil, Matt Murdock, was his first target.
A superhero—righteous, capable, yet not so powerful as to be beyond reach, and, most importantly, their goals aligned.
When rumors began to spread of a masked man in black fighting crime in the darkness of Hell’s Kitchen, Gu Zhongyan knew his opportunity had come.

Ordinarily, had he not intervened, the gravely injured Daredevil would have been rescued by Claire Temple, the nurse fans dubbed “Night Nurse.”
But now, with Gu Zhongyan here, that nurse—so often seen in the Defenders—would likely miss her cue.
Gazing at the battered Daredevil, Gu Zhongyan pulled out a carefully prepared sack, focused his mind, and aimed his hand at the man sprawled in the trash like a broken ragdoll.
“Wingardium Leviosa!”
With the incantation, the magic within his mental sea surged like a warm current to his fingertips.
But just as it was about to be released, the magic, previously flowing in perfect order, suddenly convulsed as if rocked by an earthquake, and instantly collapsed.
Another failure.
Gu Zhongyan sighed softly, resigned, and climbed into the dumpster, abandoning the beautiful idea of levitating Matt into the sack with a charm.
Indeed, without a wand or enough magical power, he was worse off than a first-year student.
Fortunately, failure was nothing new these days, and he felt no particular disappointment.
In short order, he bundled Matt into the sack, slung him over his shoulder like a bag of rice, and vanished from that dangerous neighborhood.
Thanks to his patrols, Gu Zhongyan quickly carried the wounded Matt into an abandoned building nearby.
Feeling the man’s breath growing weaker, he hurriedly pulled him from the sack and fished out a thumb-sized vial from his pocket.
“Good thing I came prepared. Otherwise, you really would be a Devil in Hell.”
Muttering, Gu Zhongyan pressed the vial to Matt’s lips and poured the potion down.
This was a healing draught he had tried to brew over the past days.
But lacking magical ingredients and a wand, Gu Zhongyan could not be sure how effective this so-called “potion” might truly be.