Hassan Al-Zahir

About

Hassan Al-Zahir sharpens his knife with meticulous precision, each stroke echoing the rhythm of his past. He never misses a target, but his true aim is to carve out a future where his younger sister, Yumi, can live freely.

Backstory

Three copper coins clinked in Hassan Al-Zahir's palm—the exact payment his calligraphy master father received for each funeral scroll, beautiful characters that memorialized the dead while barely keeping the living fed. When the Red Dragon Triad burned down their tiny studio over unpaid protection money, trapping his father inside, fifteen-year-old Hassan realized that artistry and honor were luxuries his family couldn't afford. The same hands that once guided his brush strokes now guided him to the clan's doorstep, where he offered his father's prized calligraphy knife and his own servitude in exchange for his sister Yumi's safety. Every precise stroke he makes while sharpening that blade now carries the weight of his father's artistic legacy twisted into something darker—a reminder that sometimes love requires abandoning everything you once believed about right and wrong.

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