Inside the Organization building, Captain Lucas Han entered the restroom and closed the door behind him with an eerie silence. He stood before the mirror, staring at his scar-covered face under the cold, white fluorescent lights. The words of Dr. Elias Falcour still echoed in his ears: *"No one wants to date a scarred man."*
Then he remembered Vera Kane's condescending laughter that followed, as if she were mocking him publicly.
Lucas clenched his fist with excessive force. He looked at the long scar cutting through his eyebrow and cheek, and at the other scars—the face of a man who fights monsters every day, yet is now treated like a foolish teenager because he dared to ask a woman for a date.
"Unfit..." he whispered in a rough voice full of bitterness.
Suddenly, he struck the mirror with his fist with all his might. The glass shattered with a sharp sound, pieces flying through the air along with drops of blood. Blood dripped from his torn hand into the sink, but he didn't move. He just stood there, staring at the remnants of his distorted reflection in the broken mirror, his eyes filled with a cold, deep rage.
In the forgotten city of Yami, the heartbeats of the three students sounded like drums from intense fear. Kaito stopped suddenly in the middle of a shattered intersection, where the asphalt was twisted as if the ground itself had tried to escape from something.
"I requested precise coordinates from the Second Department for three anomalous monsters in this sector," Kaito said in a calm voice, while the wind whistled through the gaps of the collapsing buildings. "We are here for the first target..."
Ren asked, tightening his grip on his black hoodie, his eyes scanning the dark windows: "Three monsters?"
Before Kaito could open his mouth, Yuki's face went completely pale. She took two steps back, feeling a sudden contraction in her stomach—not from hunger, but from instinctive terror. She whispered, her voice trembling: "No... not this! It's the insatiable black hole. It's... him." She said, staring straight ahead.
In that moment, the thick gray fog parted to reveal a monster.
It wasn't just a monster; it was a nightmare incarnate. A skeletal body stretched four meters high, its skin pale like melted wax clinging to its protruding bones. Its limbs were unnaturally long, ending in fingers resembling sharp claws. But the real horror was in its chest: a massive mouth split its chest in half, surrounded by rows of fangs that looked as if they had been sharpened just moments ago.
"Yes, Yuki, you are right. It is your fear. It is the Monster of Eternal Hunger."
Kaito looked at Yuki and noticed the trembling of her small hand. Internally, he felt a sharp pang of anxiety; he wondered if Yuki, with a body that hadn't yet released its power, was capable of standing against an entity that represented the "root of her curse." He doubted her victory for a moment, and gripped his hand inside his pocket tightly, ready to tear the monster apart if he saw Yuki collapse. But he showed nothing, his face remaining like a piece of cold marble.
"This is your test alone, Yuki. This is the future that awaits you if you do not overcome your fear," he said sternly. "If I intervene, it means you do not deserve to live in this new world. Go, and no one else move."
The monster suddenly lunged with a silent scream, a wave of pressure shattering what remained of the nearby car windows. Yuki lunged instinctively, screaming as she summoned her 'Teeth of Hunger.'
The destruction began immediately. Yuki collided with the monster's solid body, the echo of the impact rebounding in the street like a bomb. The monster wasn't just striking; it was trying to "devour" her. It unleashed sticky black tongues from the mouth in its chest, coiling around Yuki's waist and pulling her toward it with force.
"I... will not... be... prey!" Yuki screamed, spitting black blood that stained her athletic shirt. She summoned the 'Absorption Chain,' and black metallic chains erupted from her palms to wrap around the monster's neck.
A horrific tug-of-war began. The monster pulled the chains with immense strength, uprooting entire lampposts and shattering the walls of nearby buildings, which collapsed over them in a cloud of dust and rubble. Yuki was dragged across the shattered asphalt, her skin tearing, but she did not let go of the chains.
The fight lasted for grueling minutes. Yuki was battered and sent flying through the air to crash into the frames of rusted buses, while the monster grew larger and more ferocious with every drop of blood it absorbed from her. Kaito was watching, his eyes narrowing with every cry of pain Yuki uttered. He was calculating the distance between him and her, and the time needed to kill the monster, but he held his breath and forced himself to remain a spectator.
In a moment of despair, the monster pulled Yuki toward it with insane force, opening its chest cavity to crush her head between its fangs. In that moment, when death touched her forehead, Yuki saw her reflection in the monster's dull eyes, which looked like broken glass. She saw the "hunger" that terrified her... she saw herself, she saw a human who had suffered like her and still was...
"You are not my enemy... you are my cursed fear!"
In that moment, a dark energy exploded from Yuki's depths, a power she didn't know she possessed. The Teeth of Hunger around her hands grew massive and terrifying, and she lunged recklessly, plunging her claws and energy teeth directly into the "heart" of the monster's black abyss.
She screamed loudly, blood filling her mouth: "Final Mode—Absolute Gluttony!" A black layer covered her entire body, absorbing the monster's energy and life.
The place began to shake with a violent earthquake. The remaining windows in the area exploded completely, and debris flew into the air as if gravity had vanished. It was a battle of "mutual absorption"; Yuki absorbing the monster's energy, and the monster trying to swallow her.
Yuki was stronger than the monster; her chains managed to pin it against the lampposts. The monster let out a dying shriek that tore through the silence and relieved her companions. The massive body of the monster began to wither like burnt wood. Yuki delivered a punch that shattered all its fangs until it finally turned into black ash.
Yuki fell amidst the street wreckage, her body covered in deep wounds and ash, her breath coming with difficulty. Kaito approached her with calm steps, and despite his rigid features, his breathing had returned to its normal rhythm after being held throughout the fight. He leaned down slightly and placed a hand on her trembling shoulder.
"You have killed the weak version of yourself, Yuki. Today, your true history begins."
Yuki looked at him with eyes flooded with tears, but in their depths was a spark of strength Kaito had never seen before.
Suddenly, Kaito's gaze shifted sharply toward the thick shadows atop a semi-collapsed building at the corner of the street. His purple eyes clearly caught the reflection of unknown golden eyes watching them silently through the fog. He did not retreat, nor did he prepare to fight; he simply nodded coldly as if greeting an observer he knew, then turned with a piercing gaze toward Ren, who was trembling behind him.
"Ren... get ready. It's your turn."
Questions for Readers😎:
1) We saw the dark and angry side of Captain Lucas after he was insulted at the Organization. Do you think shattering the mirror was just a release of anger, or the start of an internal rebellion that might change his loyalty to the Third Department?🙄
2)Kaito nodded to the owner of the golden eyes on the roof. Is this observer the one who actually sent the monsters? And why does Kaito seem so confident despite the danger watching him?👀
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