Rumi sighed as she grabbed the last chip from her snack bag. As she chewed, she glanced over at the Sobu High campus for the hundredth time in the past half hour. Hachiman had been gone too long, and she was beginning to feel worried.
Worried that he had abandoned her.
She shook her head. "No… Hachiman wouldn't do that. He promised he wouldn't."
Despite her words, Rumi couldn't shake the troubling thought. It wouldn't be the first time she had been left behind—first her parents, then Satoshi, and even Tsukiko.
"But… he's taking too long. Did they… get him?" Rumi wondered as she watched a group of infected stagger down the road beside the campus walls.
Memories of Hachiman's incredible feats of strength, speed, and agility flooded her mind. He had thrown entire cars and swung large traffic signs as if they were baseball bats. He was capable of jumping great distances and running at speeds comparable to that of a car.
"Hachiman is super strong. Those monsters couldn't hurt him," Rumi reassured herself. "But then… where is he?"
A loud crack echoed through the school, startling Rumi.
She stood up and watched in shock as a small section of the school collapsed, sending a large cloud of dust into the air. One of the campus's skywalks shattered, raining debris down onto the ground. Crushing a large cluster of undead. Amidst the chaos, Rumi barely caught a glimpse of a dark figure soaring into the air, closely followed by a giant dressed in a black trench coat. She focused her eyesight and quickly made out the dark figure's features.
"Hachiman!"
x x x
Pain.
It was a concept I believed I would no longer have to endure. A concept that I had grown past.
Since waking up in that park, I had discovered several inhuman abilities: strength, speed, agility, eyesight, and incredible endurance. With all those skills, I thought nothing short of a collapsing building could truly hurt me.
I was mistaken.
I gasped as a searing pain ripped through my stomach. My body spun through the air, my senses a blur as I cut through the open sky. Suddenly, a large hand seized my left leg and yanked me down.
The world whirled past me as I crashed through the roof of my high school. The roof crumbled under the impact as I hurtled through concrete and metal with a loud crack. I wheezed as my back slammed into the floor, sending spiderweb-like cracks radiating out from the shattered tile beneath me. I barely had time to catch my breath before I saw the Tyrant falling right toward me like a meteor.
"Fuck!" I gasped as I rolled out of the way, just in time to avoid being crushed.
The Tyrant smashed through the floor where I had just been lying with an explosive crack. His massive body smashed down another level, sending a powerful shockwave through the campus. "You asked for it? What was I thinking? More like I was asking for trouble."
With trembling limbs, I pushed myself up, struggling to catch my breath. I glanced down at my bloodied clothes. Whatever that giant man was, he definitely wasn't human. No one could be that powerful and large. Not to mention the way his wrinkled, pale blue skin stretched unnaturally over his body, making him appear almost fabricated.
I had thought that my current abilities would be enough to handle him, just as I had dealt with all the infected that had tried to attack me.
But I had grossly overestimated my strength.
His power was incredible, greatly surpassing my own.
A loud crack echoed in the classroom as the Tyrant burst through the floor and landed in front of me. Dust filled the room as his emotionless eyes bore into mine. I stood my ground and glared back, but before I could make a move, he was upon me.
Cursing under my breath, I leaped over his incoming punch and landed behind him. I pulled my arm back and struck his back, causing him to lose his balance.
While the Tyrant's strength was above my own, that didn't mean my attacks didn't affect him as well.
I quickly moved in, kicked the back of his leg, and watched as he dropped to one knee. Leaping up, I swung my knee and struck the back of his head with enough force to send a gust of wind through the room. The Tyrant fell onto his hands and knees from the blow, disoriented.
Angry and desperate, I unleashed a flurry of attacks onto his exposed back. Each punch and kick was fueled by all my strength, driving the Tyrant further into the ground.
I pulled my fists back over my head to deliver a final blow, but gasped as the Tyrant swung an arm out. My head snapped violently to the side as I was sent crashing through two walls and into the hallway. The unfortunate infected in my path were blown back and splattered.
When I finally came to a stop, I couldn't shake off the sensation of the world spinning around me. My body felt numb, and the loud ringing in my ears wouldn't subside. Slowly, I reached up to my jaw and felt it dangling from my face, which jolted my senses back into action.
I sat up with a gasp, glancing down to confirm that my lower jaw was indeed hanging by just a few muscle strands and bits of skin, with my own blood spilling to the ground. It was gruesome and horrific.
Seeing myself in such a state sent me into a panic.
Unfortunately, that was the moment the Tyrant chose to appear. He grabbed my head and lifted my entire body up with ease.
The Tyrant began to slowly crush my skull under its iron-clad grip.
I reached up to try to pry his hand off, but his greater strength made it nearly impossible for me to pry his fingers away. I cried out in agony as my skull was continuously compressed.
My legs lurched forward as the Tyrant used his other arm to punch my stomach with incredible strength. I heaved as he landed punch after punch, slowly turning my muscles, organs, and bones into mush.
Blood exploded from my mouth with each new blow, and the bones from my collapsed ribs tore through my skin.
As I began to grow numb, the truth of my situation hit me.
I was going to die.
My arms slumped to my sides as another punch struck my stomach. Rearing back, the Tyrant grunted and struck me with so much strength and speed that his fist exploded out from my back.
I coughed out a torrent of blood as my spine snapped out behind me, and a slurry of organic mush gushed out of my stomach as the Tyrant's forearm forced itself through my stomach.
The Tyrant released my head, his other arm holding me up by the hole in my torso, and watched me gasp, cry, and grunt in agony as I helplessly tried to remove his arm from my stomach.
With my energy drained away, I managed to look up to meet his gaze.
It was then that I saw it.
Emotion.
This bastard was disappointed.
My vision turned red, and a wave of rage engulfed me like never before.
Reaching out, I grabbed his forearm and pulled myself forward, pushing his arm deeper into my torso with each agonizing tug. Blood and viscera splattered onto the ground as more and more of my pulverized organs fell. The Tyrant's eyes widened in surprise as he witnessed me tearing myself apart.
I tried to speak, to curse the bastard out, but with my lower jaw hanging limply, all I could manage was a gurgle. Once close enough, I planted my feet into the Tyrant's chest and wrapped my arms around his bicep. With a gurgled battle cry, I began to pull.
The Tyrant grunted and tried to dislodge his arm from my body, but I refused to let go.
You aren't going anywhere, you fucking bastard!
I continued to pull with everything I had. Blood began to seep through the Tyrant's trench coat, and the sound of tearing echoed in the hallway as his flesh and bones strained under my grip.
The Tyrant unleashed a wave of punches to my head to stop me. One of my eyes exploded, teeth flew out, blood splattered across the air, and skin tore away.
But despite the pain, I refused to stop.
The pain and agony I felt were nothing in comparison to the rage I felt.
With a gurgled yell, I leaned in close and gave one more final pull.
The Tyrant's bones finally snapped, forcing the large creature to his knees. The ground under us shook and cracked violently.
With an animalistic roar that resembled a gurgling scream, I used all my remaining strength to completely rip away the Tyrant's arm from his shoulder in a shower of blood.
Without anything to anchor me, I flew back, the Tyrant's arm still stuck within my torso, and slid along the blood-covered floor as the Tyrant's shoulder gushed with blood. The monstrous man hissed and groaned as he grabbed at his stump of an arm.
I laughed weakly as I lay on the ground. Whatever energy I had forced out had finally run dry.
If I'm going to die, I'm at least taking your arm with me, you stupid bastard. I thought, my vision slowly darkening.
But as I was about to give up, I choked. No… what about Rumi? She's still on that roof! I can't leave her. And what about Komachi, Yui, and Yukino?! No. I'm not dying here. No way in hell!
A feeling deep inside me flickered. Instincts flared within my mind as a new and unfamiliar sensation pulsed out. I didn't know what it was, but I accepted it.
From deep inside me, I watched in shock as several blood-red, glowing tendrils slithered out of my body and stabbed into the Tyrant's large arm that was still inside me. I watched with an odd fascination as the tendril broke down the flesh of the Tyrant's arm in a swirl of biomass and slowly absorbed it into my body.
It was pretty gross.
Flesh and tendrils swarmed over me, and I felt a wave of relief and electricity course through me. When it was finally over, I gasped as I saw the hole in my stomach gone. There wasn't even a scar on my pale, but toned stomach. Had I always had those abbs?
Reaching up, I tentatively grabbed my lower jaw. It was back in place. Almost as if it had never been punched halfway off. I could now see out of both eyes as well.
Did I just… heal myself?
Standing up, I looked down at my healed body and then over to the Tyrant, who was staring at me silently. I wasn't sure why, but deep down, I l knew I had grown stronger.
"Okay… round two, you ugly bastard."
I dashed forward and swung. The Tyrant's head snapped back. The large man fell to his back with a resounding crash. I jumped over his body and unleashed a volley of attacks, each one more powerful than the last. Blood and gore exploded from the Tyrant's upper body as my fists rained down on him. With each new hit, the ground beneath us shook, and the walls rattled. He tried to stop me, to try to push me away.
But I didn't let him.
He was going down.
I had to pay him back.
I stopped punching the monster and pulled my leg up. I began to stomp. Each new blow caused the ground to quake. With a yell, I jumped up and brought my foot down over the Tyrant's head. The blow shattered not only a part of the creature's skull but also the ground below us. We fell through the ground and landed on the first floor. Chunks of concrete and swirls of smoke filled the hall as silence enveloped us.
I stood there, waiting for the Tyrant to get up.
It didn't.
It didn't even twitch.
The creature sat there, unmoving and covered in its own blood.
I had won.
An odd feeling swelled within me. It was telling me to step closer to the Tyrant. But I pushed that feeling down. I had to get back to Rumi. She had most likely heard and seen the results of the fight and grew worried.
With one final sigh, I turned around and left the Tyrant's corpse behind. Before I turned the corner, I looked back and gave the Tyrant one final look to make sure it was dead. It didn't move.
"Good riddance," I said and leaped up through the large holes in the building. Once outside, I leaped across the rooftops to head back to Rumi.
As I leaped across the rooftops, the image of the slithering, glowing tentacles that sprouted from within me lingered in my mind. I would never forget how they broke down the Tyrant's arm and combined its biomatter to heal me. To make me stronger.
What I had done, whether intentional or not, was not human.
Closing my eyes, I savored the wind rushing past me and gradually accepted what I had dreaded the most.
I wasn't human.
What… am I?
x x x
Night had fallen over Sobu High School.
Once a prestigious institution known for its high admission standards, it was now a shadow of its former self. Large sections of the campus lay in ruins and stained with blood.
In one of the first-year hallways, a scene of destruction could be found. The walls were cracked and torn down, and parts of the ceiling had collapsed. Amidst the wreckage lay the T-103 Tyrant, its once powerful and unstoppable form battered and bloodied. Half of its skull was caved in, while its upper body was disfigured and broken. One of its arms was missing while a pool of dried blood surrounded it.
A creature as powerful as this one had never been brought to such a state by mere physical force alone. It wouldn't be wrong to assume that the creature was dead.
However, despite all its injuries and blood loss, the Tyrant's remaining eye snapped open. Slowly, its bone and flesh shifted as the Tyrant let out a low groan that echoed throughout the campus.