A deep calmly voice: "And in a breath of an expansion….everything…...happened."
The sky over Tokyo fractured like a cracked mirror as a monstrous Akuma slammed into the city's main avenue.
It wasn't the most powerful they'd faced, medium threat level at best, but its size towered above nearby buildings, and the panic it created was instantaneous. Horns blared, people screamed, and the ground trembled with each of the beast's steps. Mothers clutched their children. Strangers trampled strangers. Animals broke free from leashes, fleeing toward alleys that led to nowhere.
Kurai arrived late.
By the time his boots hit the ground, the chaos had already blossomed. He could barely hear himself think through the sirens and collapsing storefronts. His teammates were already moving. Kebe blinked through space with his signature blue ripple, transporting Fumiko onto a nearby rooftop.
She didn't waste a second. With a flick of her wrist, glassy eggshell fragments scattered around the Akuma's feet, glowing pale before flash-freezing into place. A circle of frost snapped tight around the beast, locking its limbs in place. It howled and strained...too slow.
"Show's yours, Kurai," Fumiko said through the comms, voice flat but expectant.
Kurai exhaled and dashed forward. His smoke blade ignited in his hand, a shifting, ghostly thing made of vapor and death. He cut through the beast's neck with one clean strike. The Akuma exploded into a spray of blood and bone, raining gore across the concrete battlefield.
The dust settled. The silence after the chaos was suffocating.
Kurai stood in the middle of it, blood soaking into his coat. He looked down at the steaming remains, at his shaking hands, and clicked his tongue.
"Tch. Got blood on my collar again."
Same city, different monster. Different screams.
He sat down slowly, not because he was tired but because standing in this world felt heavier every time.
"You've evolved," Seiko said behind him. "Maybe it's time to rest."
He didn't look at her.
Rest…? Was that even an option for people like me?
Flashback
He was just a boy back then. Smaller than the others. Barely strong enough to lift a stick, much less a fist.
The alley was narrow, suffocating, lined with rotting trash and concrete walls smeared with blood. Three men towered over him, laughing—machetes in hand. Behind him, curled up and terrified, was a little girl. She couldn't stop crying. Neither could he, but he kept his body between them.
"Move, boy," one growled.
He didn't.
They broke his legs first. Then his hands. A few kicks to the gut made him cough blood. But he didn't move from her. Even when they pinned him down and started carving into his arms like they were stripping bark off a tree, he didn't move.
He went numb eventually. Couldn't feel the pain anymore. The world blurred.
So this is where it ends...?
He closed his eyes. The girl was still crying behind him. That's all he could hear now.
But then... something changed.
A voice echoed in his mind. Gentle. Otherworldly.
"These people will pay the ultimate price when they reach my hand.
Until then... you will now go to a better place where you will no longer experience this terrible pain."
He felt light. Warm. Like he was being lifted out of his own body.
The sounds of violence didn't stop. But they weren't hitting him anymore.
Struggling to open his swollen eyes, he saw a blurry figure. Tall, glowing saintly, moving with divine grace as it struck down the men one by one. His vision failed again, but just before he passed out, he heard the woman scream out something.
A name?
It sounded like...
"...Nao..."
Back to Present
Kurai woke up two months later in a sterile white hospital bed, bandaged head to toe. His vision was still hazy. Machines beeped steadily beside him.
He stared at the ceiling, numb. It was quiet here. Too quiet.
Was it a dream?
The voice... the pain... the girl...
He turned his head weakly and saw a bouquet of white lilies on the bedside table. A small card leaned against the vase.
Get well soon.
A tiny smile tugged at his lips. Maybe he hadn't been alone after all.
The next day, as golden sunlight filtered in through the hospital window, the door creaked open. A woman stepped in, elegant yet tired. Her eyes lit up the moment she saw him awake. The flowers she held dropped to the floor as she rushed to his bedside.
"I thought you'd never wake up," she said, hugging him without warning. Her voice cracked with relief. He stiffened at first... but then let his arms return the embrace.
After a long silence, she pulled away, wiped her face, and smiled.
"I'm Seiko. One of the heads of the Resistance. I've been checking on you every week."
"Resistance...?" he croaked.
She nodded. "We fight against both the government's tyranny and the monsters that roam this world. You've already done more than most of us."
He blinked. "I did... something?"
Seiko smiled.
"You saved my boss's little girl. We owe you everything."
Kurai's eyes widened slightly.
"That girl... I saved... her..."
"Yes. And she hasn't stopped asking about you."
His lips moved without sound. A name came to him, unprompted, but warm.
"...Nao..."
Then the world spun, and darkness pulled him under again.
"Kurai...? Hey. Kurai!"
But he was already gone, drifting back into the void...this time, at peace.