The news blared from every direction—buildings, streets, even the devices in people's hands. "MONSTERS SIGHTED IN MULTIPLE LOCATIONS! EVACUATION PROTOCOL INITIATED!" The screen glitched mid-sentence as it was torn apart by a giant monster. It growled with an intense pressure while running rogue through the cities.
Yuki stared at the tablet in her lap with no realization, she was blanked out. Hiro sat across from her. His eyes looked distant. The room was dark and the lights were turned off.
"...Should we even bother anymore?" Yuki's voice broke the silence.
Hiro didn't respond right away. He looked at the tablet screen, to the blurred image of Ryouma disappearing amidst the chaos. He rubbed his face with both hands and let out a shaky breath.
"I don't know, Yuki," he muttered. "Every day, it feels like… it feels like we're already dead."
Yuki sniffed, her fingers trembling as she paused the video. "Ryouma's gone. Our home, our lives… everything's gone. What's left to even fight for?"
Before Hiro could answer, a loud screech ripped through the air outside. The house trembled.
"What the hell was that?" Hiro's head snapped toward the window.
Yuki didn't answer. She was just frozen in place. The sound came again. It was louder this time, followed by the unmistakable vibration of heavy marching footsteps.
The ground shook violently, knocking over the cracked vase on the table. It shattered into tiny pieces, but neither of them noticed.
"Yuki… stay down," Hiro whispered, though his voice was barely audible over the rumbling.
Before either of them could move, the entire top half of the house was ripped apart.
The couple looked up in horror.
A huge, grotesque beast loomed over them, its body an amalgamation of spindly spider legs and pulsating, alien flesh. Its dripping mandibles twitched as it let out an ear-splitting screech, its countless glowing red eyes fixed on them.
"Oh my God…" Hiro's voice cracked. He grabbed Yuki's arm, pulling her closer.
"This… this is it." Yuki's voice was almost numb, but her body shook as tears rolled down her face. Her eyes, though empty, glinted with something deeper, something raw. "This is what killed Ryouma."
She staggered to her feet, grabbing a kitchen knife from the rubble around them. Her hands trembled, but she held it out, pointing it toward the monster.
"Yuki, what the hell are you doing?!" Hiro stood, panic in his voice.
"What do you think I'm doing?" she snapped, tears still streaming. "This thing… it took our son. It took everything! I—" Her voice broke, but she swallowed her fear. "I'm not going to just sit here and die like this."
Hiro hesitated for a moment, but chose to follow her stead.
They stood side by side, staring at the beast with their empty eyes, and rage that was overwhelming their fear.
"Ready?" Yuki asked, her voice shaking.
"No," Hiro replied honestly.
The monster's claw shot toward them in an instant.
"AAAAARGH!" they both screamed, standing their ground as the massive limb crashed down.
The impact was deafening. Dust and rubble exploded in every direction, causing a thick cloud to appear that blocked everything from view.
When the smoke cleared, the couple stood frozen as their mouth were agape.
A figure was standing in front of them, holding the monster's massive claw with one hand.
"What the—" Hiro started, but the words got stuck in his throat.
The person gripping the claw had long white-and-red hair that swayed in the wind. Their muscular frame gleamed under the sunlight, and their arm was covered in hard, scaled armor. The monster screeched in pain as the figure twisted its claw and snapped it clean off.
The figure turned slightly, revealing a sharp grin full of shark-like teeth.
"Are you two seriously just gonna stand there? Dumbasses," the figure barked. The voice was rough, annoyed—and unmistakably male.
"Wait… what?" Yuki blinked, struggling to process what she was seeing.
"Move, now!" the man yelled, pointing past them. "Head west, two clicks! There's a safety zone. You're not gonna die here—at least not on my watch."
Yuki and Hiro didn't budge, still frozen in place.
"You wanna die that badly?" he snapped. "Fine, but don't do it on my time!"
The beast screeched again, swinging another limb at the stranger. He didn't flinch, instead leaping forward and slamming his scaled fist into the limb. It shattered on impact, sending shards of carapace flying.
Yuki grabbed Hiro's arm. "Let's go. He's giving us a chance."
Hiro hesitated but eventually nodded. "Yeah… okay."
They turned and ran, their steps unsteady on the uneven ground.
Behind them, the man muttered, "A magnitude 6? Here? Damn it, Eida, you could've warned me earlier." He dodged another attack, muttering curses under his breath as he struck back.
Yuki and Hiro darted through the ruins, pausing behind a pile of rubble to catch their breath.
"Hiro… what are we even doing?" Yuki asked, clutching her knees.
"Running. Like he said," Hiro replied, panting.
"No, I mean… after this. What's the point?" Yuki's voice cracked. "We have nothing left. No Ryouma. No home. Nothing."
Hiro leaned back against the rubble, staring at the gray sky. "I don't know. I really don't."
He continued, "But… if we die now, we may be killing some one else with us too. There must be a reason why we are still alive…there definitely is."
Yuki nodded, as she fixed her face and looked at Hiro with a serious expression, " We will do what we can. Even if there's a slight chance, a miracle, I will bet my life on it, and search for Ryouma. Until then…"
"Until then…" Hiro said as they both began to move between the rubbles to their next destination.
*
"Keep your defenses up!! Don't lose your hold." General Asakura shouted as he aimed at the large monster laying in the middle of the bridge. It had a slimy appearance, dark in complexion, but there was that reddish- glow that appeared through its nerves whenever it made even a slight movement.
"Our weapons are not working!!" One of the soldiers shouted.
"Well, of course it's not, you shitheads. That's not a dog you are killing." Eida said as he slapped the head of the soldier.
"This is more pain in the ass than I actually thought." He said as he started moving towards the huge glob of slime.
"That's dangerous."
"Does he have a death wish? Going straight into the tiger's den!!"
"General, won't you say anything?!"
"Just look at what's about to happen in front of you and don't blink your eyes. This is the next stage for the humans, a second evolution."
General Asakura shouted as he commanded the soldiers to look forward.
"Hello, you jiggly motherfucker." Eida said as he kept moving closer and closer to the beast.
"Aughhhhh!!!!!" The monster screamed and gulped down Eida in an instant. There was silence everywhere for a moment.
"Grggg?!!…..Hnnnnghhhhh!!!!!" The monster screamed as it tried to move away but was rendered immobile.
The red glowing nerves popped up and every single one of them converged to the center of the beast towards a single person.
"Gahhhh!!!—" The scream was cut as the monster exploded like a dynamite. Eida stood in the center, holding the orb that was making the monster function.
"It wasn't even jiggly." Eida said in dismay as it absorbed the orb through his hands. His nerves turned pitch black as he absorbed the energy but it subsided as the time passed by.
The soldiers couldn't believe what they saw. It was a hope for them, something that could fight those monsters had appeared. All of them started to cheer as Eida returned back to them.
"What the fuck are you grinning about? That's creepy." Eida said as he looked at Asakura smiling.
"Huh, I don't want to hear that from you."
"Yea, yaa, whatever." Eida said as he teleported himself to a different location, leaving behind a wooden doll in his stead.
"U-Uhhh...ok"