The first thing he felt when consciousness returned was pain.
A pain so unbearable it nearly dragged him back into the darkness.
Adam felt as if his skin, flesh, tendons, and bones were being torn apart, shredded, and ground into dust. Every strand of his nerves ripped away and replaced with glowing red steel rods—only for the process to reverse, stitching him back together, again and again, in an endless cycle of torment.
On the outside, chaos reigned.
When Adam first arrived at the emergency ward, his body had already gone still. His twitching had ceased, and many thought the worst had passed.
But it was only the beginning.
Without warning, his entire body convulsed violently, muscles spasming as if worms writhed beneath his skin. His Reiatsu erupted outward in violent waves, shaking the room, overwhelming restraints that barely held him down. Adam howled in agony, his body instinctively thrashing and clawing at itself like a man possessed.
Thankfully, this was no ordinary hospital—it was one of Fire Moth's exclusive facilities. Protocols snapped into place, and the ward was sealed in quarantine. To the staff, Adam's condition was a textbook case of advanced Honkai Energy contamination.
But Himeko and Hua knew better.
They recognized the faint blue glow bleeding across his body. This wasn't Honkai's doing.
Time dragged as the medics struggled to keep him stabilized, everyone watching with taut nerves.
Then it happened. Dark blood, so thick and murky it was nearly black, seeped through Adam's pores. A purplish-pink substance bled out with it, sizzling in the air before evaporating into nothing.
Every person in the room froze. They knew this energy. Honkai Energy.
The doctors, stunned, quickly realized the truth: Adam's body wasn't succumbing to the Honkai—it was purging it.
The realization hit Himeko like a thunderbolt. She remembered Adam explaining, in his quiet, guarded way, that his unique energy naturally suppressed Honkai corruption within him.
Now, before her very eyes, that truth played out.
The violet lines that had crawled along his leg began to fade, retreating inch by inch. For nearly an hour, the process continued. Finally, the corruption vanished completely, and Adam's body fell still once more.
When Adam finally stilled, the doctors wasted no time. The moment his condition stabilized, they transferred him to a examination chamber.
Dozens of instruments surrounded the bed, scanners humming as they probed his vitals, blood samples, and cellular structure. Monitors lit up in rapid succession, streams of data flooding across the screens.
At first, the results baffled them. The tissue samples they expected to be riddled with Honkai signatures showed none. Not suppressed. Not dormant. Simply gone.
One doctor adjusted his glasses and re-ran the test three times, his voice cracking when he finally spoke.
"Impossible… There's no trace of Honkai energy left in his system. It's… completely eradicated."
Another leaned closer to the display, disbelief etched across her face.
"No one in history has ever recovered from Honkai corruption. It has no cure—once it begins, it only spreads until the patient eventually died. And yet…" She looked back at Adam, lying unconscious under the sterile lights. "He's clean."
The words spread like wildfire through the medical team, half-whispered in awe, half in disbelief. What they were seeing wasn't just unprecedented—it shattered everything they thought they knew about the disease.
Protocols demanded escalation. Within the hour, a secure report was drafted and sent directly to Fire Moth's higher-ups and especially the research departments.
Himeko stood in the room with a grim expression. The doctor on the other end looked pale, as if he still couldn't believe the words leaving his mouth.
"Captain Himeko… subject Adam White has tested negative for all traces of Honkai corruption. Multiple scans confirm this. He is… he is the first recorded case of complete recovery."
For a moment, Himeko didn't answer. She simply stared out into the chamber where Adam slept peacefully, the weight of the words settling over her. A miracle—no, something beyond that.
Her eyes narrowed slightly. She remembered Adam's explanation about his energy suppressing Honkai within him. But suppression was one thing. Eradication was another.
Her hand tightened into a fist as she ordered."…Keep this contained. No word leaves that room without my authorization."
"Yes, Captain." They all answered but their eyes were shifting.
She saw this and exhaled slowly. For Fire Moth, for humanity, Adam had just become something far more valuable than any weapon.
And that meant trouble would follow.
Without a doubt this will leak out regardless of her will. But this should buy enough time for her.
Adam's miraculous deed will definitely catch the attention of researchers, especially Mobius of the 5th Research Institute as someone who is totally obsessed with finding a cure for Honkai caused disease.
———
The news didn't stay contained for long.
Within hours, whispers spread through Fire Moth's channels like wildfire. Even with Himeko's explicit orders, there were too many eyes, too many hands on the data. By the next day, the miracle of the "first successful recovery" reached the highest levels of command—and beyond.
To the higher-ups, Adam was no longer a soldier. He was an asset.
Urgent memos circulated within the command hierarchy, and the demand was unanimous: Adam White was to be transferred immediately to Main HQ for "further examination." The polite wording couldn't disguise the truth. In their eyes, he was an irresistible specimen.
And in the shadows of the 5th Research Institute, one name surfaced again and again.
Mobius.
The eccentric genius who had devoted her life—and sanity—to unraveling the mysteries of the Honkai. News of a man who had not just resisted, but eradicated corruption from his body, reached her through her web of connections before the ink had dried on the first report. For someone obsessed with curing humanity's greatest plague, this is like stumbling upon an irresistible treasure.
"This… this could be the key," she whispered, her eyes alight with predatory fascination. "I must see him. I must."
But between Mobius' hunger and the higher-ups' greed, one person stood in the way.
Himeko.
She knew what would happen if Adam was dragged into the maw of bureaucracy and experimentation. He wouldn't survive—not as the person he was.
So she acted.
It wasn't force of arms or rank that saved Adam. It was persuasion. Himeko leveraged her connections and arguments, pushing her request up the ladder until it landed in the hands of one of Fire Moth's greatest minds—Dr. MEI.
When the two finally spoke, Himeko stood straight-backed, her voice hard with conviction.
"Adam's case is unique. His power isn't something you can extract, replicate, or manufacture. If you drag him into a lab like a rat, you'll destroy him for nothing."
On the other end of the secure channel, MEI was silent for a long moment, her sharp eyes unreadable behind her glasses. Finally, she exhaled, almost amused.
"You argue with passion, Captain. However, until it is proven, I cannot intervene."
Himeko's jaw tightened. "So you'll stop them—if what I said is true?"
"If his recovery truly cannot be replicated," MEI said, her tone pragmatic, "then yes. Unlike the higher-ups, I do not waste precious assets. Someone like him still has value."
Her gaze sharpened.
"I won't hide it from you, Captain. You were chosen as a candidate for Project SOLDIER precisely because of your unusual resistance to Honkai energy. And someone who appears immune to corruption? He would be a perfect candidate."
It wasn't a victory. But it wasn't defeat either.
Himeko inclined her head slightly, conceding the compromise. "…That's enough. Thank you."
"Good. Then I will inform Dr. Mobius of your concerns."
At Himeko's sharp look, MEI added with a faint smirk, "Don't worry. Mobius is… different from what you imagine. I can vouch that she will take good care of your Adam."
The emphasis wasn't lost on her. Himeko frowned, but held her tongue as MEI's smile lingered, sharp and knowing.
Within the week, the verdict came down. Adam would not be thrown to the wolves of HQ, but instead transferred under controlled terms to the 5th Institute—to aid Dr. Mobius' research.
It was MEI's way of balancing the scales: protecting Adam as a person, while keeping the higher-ups satisfied just enough.
For the higher-ups, he was still a test subject.
For Mobius, he was a mystery she could never let go of—and mysteries, in her own twisted way, were precious.
And for Himeko… Adam was more than a soldier or a comrade. He was someone worth fighting to protect, because if anyone could stand against the Honkai, she believed it would be him—even if she couldn't explain why.
But even she knew this was only the beginning.
The world now knew the impossible was possible.
And Adam, whether he wanted it or not, had just become the center of it all.
—————
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