Kumiko's parents, Tatsuya and Akane, were watching TV on their couch.
"A superhero…" Tatsuya murmured. "What even is that?"
Akane flipped the channels. "I don't know, dear, but maybe the government will have the answers! They always do…"
She stopped at the news channel. "There! A new news report!"
"Breaking news! It's Reporter Miku, and I've just stumbled upon ANOTHER mysterious sighting!"
The camera turned to a hospital, where black tendrils were ripping through the building as people ran outside, screaming.
"Could this be the work of the superhero? Or are we witnessing a NEW government secret? Stay tuned, everyone!"
Both parents stared at the screen in horror. Akane immediately recognized the hospital.
"That's the Yasuragi Medical Center! It's right by where our daughter and her friends are!"
Tatsuya quickly pulled out his phone and dialed Kumiko's number, but after a while, there was no response, so Tatsuya left a voicemail.
"Kumiko, honey, this is your Dad! Call back whenever you can, and please stay safe!"
Akane looked outside the window, wearing a hopeful smile on her face. "Maybe she's okay, maybe this is all a dream…a really bad dream…"
Tatsuya got up, glancing at the news one more time. "I hope so."
Meanwhile, at the hospital…
BOOM.
Mykhail watched as the tendrils ripped through the walls and roof, and he also noticed the street filled with people running in terror.
"AHHHHHH!"
As the tendrils appeared to grow, Mykhail closed his eyes, and then began laughing.
"HAHAHAHA!"
And without warning, he dropped the pizzas and began running towards the hospital, opening his backpack.
"Finally! Something GOOD!"
He navigated through civilians, jumped over cars, and hopped inside of an alleyway, before bursting out of it, fully in costume.
"Let's do this!"
A bunch of shocked people watched as he ran past them, holding his hand out.
"Hey, it's that hero!"
Mykhail ran right toward the hospital and jumped up. His sword flew right up to him…
…and right past him.
"Man, what the hell?"
He quickly picked it up before leaping up and crashing into the third floor of the hospital. As soon as he entered, he saw Takehiro and Kurumi cornered by a bunch of tendrils.
"Ahhh! Takehiro, that is this?" Kurumi exclaimed.
Takehiro tried to grab a broom and bat the tendrils away, but they simply absorbed the hits and continued attacking.
"I don't know!" Takehiro replied. "We need help!"
"Did someone say help?"
By the time Takehiro and Kurumi could blink, they saw every tendril in front of them slashed to pieces.
"What?" Takehiro wondered.
Justice dropped down, blade in hand. "No, that intro won't work. Definitely got to work on that."
Both Kurumi and Takehiro stared at him in shock, unable to move.
"Well, guess it's time for some hero duty! Stay safe, you two!" Justice announced.
In an instant, he took off, following the trail of tendrils down the hallway and into the stairwell.
"Hey, wait!" Takehiro called out.
Kurumi tugged on his arm. "He's already gone…"
"But Kumiko's up there! He's already gotten her hurt once, what do you think will happen this time?"
Without warning, Takehiro began to follow after Justice, entering the stairwell. Kurumi sighed.
"Damn it!"
Then she followed as well.
Justice scaled up the steps before making it to the top floor. "The trail ends here! Wait, don't tell me…"
He opened the doors to the top floor, noticing cracked walls, unconscious doctors and patients, dust falling from the ceiling, and a single tendril leading into Kumiko's room.
"Crap! Kumiko!"
He slowly crept his way toward Kumiko's room, noticing the changes in the air. "Creepy…"
With every step he took, the tendril seemed to react, almost as if it could sense his presence.
BEEP. BEEP. BEEP. BEEP.
As soon as Justice got closer, the tendril started to pulse repeatedly with a light green color. When Justice finally got to the door, he gently pushed it open.
"Hello? Anyone inside?"
Silence.
"Okay, guess I've gotta go in."
He kicked the door open and raised his blade. "Hands up!"
The room was eerily quiet, half the roof was gone, and as Justice looked around, he noticed half a dozen doctors and nurses hanging from the ceiling, wrapped in tendrils.
"Are they…dead?" Justice wondered.
One of them lifted his head, reaching out to Justice. "Please…help…us…"
"What is THIS?"
Just then, he heard a voice calling to him from the middle of the room. "Mykhail?"
He immediately turned his head, and he saw Kumiko sitting on the edge of her bed, still in her hospital gown.
"Kumiko?"
Mykhail rushed up to her and hugged her, taking off his mask. "Are you okay?"
She smiled at him. "Yeah, it's nice to see you again!"
Mykhail checked the extent of the damage to the room. "What happened in here? It's like a monster attacked the place!"
She lifted her head, seemingly taking in her surroundings for the first time. "Wow, looks really bad…"
Mykhail held out a hand to her. "Here, Takehiro and Kurumi are downstairs. I'll take you to them."
But as he went to grab her, she surprisingly stood up on her own. "Okay, let's go!"
Mykhail blankly stared at her as she started to effortlessly walk to the door. "Kumiko…?"
"Yeah? Like you said, it's dangerous! We should go!"
"How are you…your eyes, your LEGS? How can you WALK?"
He noticed her eyes and her body, both of which seemed to be perfectly fine, despite the horrific explosion she'd been in earlier.
"Hmm?" she answered, appearing confused. "What do you mean?"
Mykhail took a step back, sizing up Kumiko, who turned around.
"What's the matter? Don't you trust me?"
"I do!" he quickly stammered. "It's just…something's off…"
She tilted her head, almost as if she was offended. "What? Is it my hair? My face? Do I have something in my teeth?"
She stepped forward, staring him right in the eyes. "Well?"
Mykhail shook his head, rubbing his eyes. "You know what, maybe I'm dreaming! Yeah, that's it! Let's go take you to the others!"
Kumiko began to giggle.
"A dream? Mykhail, you're too smart for that!"
The entire aura of the room began to shift, and her pupils began to glow green.
"We've got our dreams. But this…is not one of them."
And with that, her entire arm shifted into a pulsing black tendril, which sent Mykhail flying out of the hospital building.
BOOM.
Outside, a news helicopter was busy trying to record the event. Miku stood inside, trying to record.
"What do we have here folks? Those tendrils do NOT play nice, and it seems they've just sent someone flying! Oh wait, is that the SUPERHERO?"
Mykhail walked out of the rubble of the office building he landed in, putting on his mask before the camera could catch him.
"What the hell was that?"
Before he had time to process what had just occurred, a volley of sharp tendrils shot out at him, forcing him to jump away.
"Oooh! That looks dangerous!" Miku remarked. "Get us in closer, I want the full footage!"
Justice immediately pointed them away. "Wait, don't get closer!"
BOOM.
A massive earthquake rattled the ground as something crashed into the road, launching more tendrils at Justice, who used his sword to fend them off.
"Aww man, I can't see!" Miku moaned. "Get me a good angle!"
"You're crazy, you know?" the pilot replied.
Inside the dust cloud that formed, Mykhail saw Kumiko walking out, her eyes fully glowing with green light.
"Kumiko!" he called out. "What's going on? What happened to you?"
"You were right, Mykhail," she responded. "You've shown me a new perspective on what's POSSIBLE. Now, allow me to return the favor."
A gooey, black, and green substance began to emerge from directly within her body, horrifying Justice. It wrapped around her entire frame, coating her from head to toe and forming dense armor around her body.
"No way…" Justice muttered.
The sticky substance continued to wrap around her, forming a mask with glowing green eyes and a full head of hair made from long tendrils.
"AHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!"
Justice took in the now terrifying figure before him, which took one step forward. Inside the mask, Kumiko heard a cold, feminine voice, which only gave one command.
"Rip him apart."
She laughed in response.
"With pleasure."
Her arm formed another tendril and batted Justice away, sending him flying down the street.
"Hey!" Miku exclaimed. "Did you catch that? Turn the helicopter around!"
The camera focused on Kumiko, who appeared to be walking toward Justice. "What IS that?"
Kumiko took one look at the helicopter before attempting to strike it with a tendril.
"Crap!" the pilot yelled, attempting to swerve the helicopter out of the way.
As soon as the tendril got close to them, it was slashed in half by Justice.
"Did you see that?" Miku asked. "The hero saved us!"
"I did NOT sign up for all of this, not gonna lie," Justice thought, focusing his attention back on Kumiko, who put a hand on her hip.
"Hmph."
"I need to talk to Kumiko!" Justice stated. "Whatever you are, I need you to disappear!"
She raised her hand in response.
"What are you going to do, fire off another slimy little limb at me? I've got it figured out!"
"Oh?" she said, cracking her neck. "Let's mix it up."
In the blink of an eye, she was behind him, attempting to strike him in the head, but he ducked and tried to swing his sword at her.
"That sword…" the voice said.
Kumiko put her hand up, catching it with ease.
"KILL HIM."
Justice quickly pulled his sword back, which inadvertently took off Kumiko's entire hand.
"Kumiko! Crap, I'm sorry—!"
But surprisingly, it began to REGROW, and in SECONDS, it was as good as new.
"Ahh, now then…"
She tried to punch Justice, but he put his sword up just in time to block the blow. As he tried to hit her with the butt of his sword, she effortlessly sidestepped the blow and kicked him in the face before hitting him with a jab and cross and slamming him into the ground.
"When…did you learn how to fight…?" Justice asked.
She simply tried to stomp him, but he rolled out of the way and took a deep breath.
"Kumiko, I need you…to COME BACK!"
He reared back and tried to punch her, but she caught his fist in mid-air, causing a massive shockwave around them.
"What ARE you?"
She began pushing his fist back towards him.
"Death."
And with that, she grabbed him by his neck and jumped away…
…in the direction of the fleeing civilians.
"Go, go, go!" Miku yelled. "Follow those two, now!"
The pilot shook his head. "We're gonna die."
Inside the hospital, Takehiro and Kurumi finally made it to Kumiko's room, only to find it empty and notice the chaos outside.
"My…my gosh…" Takehiro said, a blank stare on his face. "The world…what's happening to it?"
Meanwhile, in a meeting room…
"AHHHH!"
On a giant screen, a table of government officials watched as Kumiko ran through the streets, attacking both civilians and buildings, all while dragging Justice along the ground.
"This is bad," one said, tapping his chin. "Not one, but TWO?"
A woman, Yuiko, clicked her pen and stood up. "The response is simple. Aquire them both, and do so before they start causing mass casualties."
"We can't send robots in a residential zone like that! It'll be chaos!"
"It already is," Yuiko replied. "Let's see what the Boss thinks."
She motioned over to a man in a tuxedo, staring out of the window. "Mr. Sato?"
He slowly turned around, his long hair covering most of his face. "Times have changed. We must change with them. Not one, but TWO of these…mysterious entities. The goal should be more broad, more expansive, now that we know what we know."
"What do you order, sir?" Yuiko asked.
He looked at the table with a stern but ambiguous glint in his eyes.
"Contain them, and harvest their DNA. By the time this month is done, we shall make everyone a…'superhuman.'"
—-