A crack of thunder ripped through the sky just as his breath burst between his lips.
And inside his skull, like an echo that crushed all doubt, a voice roared:
"Move! Wake up! Break everything! No more chains!"
Her legs, tense as springs, obeyed before her mind could stop them. The first step was a thud against the wet floor.
The second, an explosion of water beneath her boot. The third... there was no turning back.
He ran.
He ran like a wolf freed from a rotten cage. Each step burst through puddles, each stride a furious heartbeat that the storm couldn't silence. The rumble of thunder accompanied his uneven breathing, like applause from invisible gods celebrating his madness.
His dark coat billowed behind him, heavy with rain, but not a single thread of cloth could stem the fury that now consumed him from within.
Halfway across the bridge, he saw the railing coming toward him: a wall dividing cowardice... from a free monster.
Rei gritted his teeth, felt the blood roar in his temples, and let out his roar, alive, wild, human:
"NOW OR NEVER!" he shouted against the wind, against his fear, against the whole world. "MY WAY OR NONE!"
He stepped onto the soaked railing without hesitation, as if death were nothing more than another puddle beneath his boots. He bent his knees, felt the cold metal give slightly under his weight, and raised his gaze to a sky split by cracks of white electricity.
A crash of thunder crashed overhead just as he exhaled the air from his lungs—the last bit of doubt evaporated in the storm.
A flash of lightning engulfed him.
He leaped.
A leap that shattered the night and froze the demons in the rain.
His fist closed in the air like a black meteor. Gravity itself seemed to beg him not to. But Rei Tsukishiro no longer obeyed chains.
For a second, the rain seemed to stop.
A dark silhouette, suspended against a flash of lightning. A clenched fist, wrapped in a fury no wall could contain. A specter of flesh and will descending like a sentence.
Below, the thugs barely looked up.
Eyes widened. A curse caught in their throats.
CRACK!
The impact was a double roar:
The roar of thunder. The roar of bones giving way under Rei Tsukishiro 's fury .
The first thug didn't even manage to let out a scream: he folded under the fist like a rag doll, spitting out saliva and consciousness at the same time. The ground shook under the weight of the fall, sending water and mud splattering in all directions.
Rei landed in a crouch, his hand still smoking from the blow, his breath turning to steam in the icy rain. His shadow, split by lightning, lengthened over the other seven, who fell back in disbelief, feeling for the first time a fear that no street knife could resolve.
He slowly raised his head. His eyes, two extinguished embers, ignited just as they met the terrified gaze of the next man. A thin voice filtered through his lips, hoarse, sharp as the night itself:
"No matter how many there are..." he whispered, letting each word sink into her bones.
"This time... no one touches anyone... while I breathe."
The wind howled.
The girl, soaked, sobbed between gasps, staring at that figure that was neither salvation nor demon... but both at once.
The other thugs instinctively retreated, their boots squelching in puddles that reflected lightning. The rain fell like needles, sticking strands to their sweaty faces, erasing any trace of bravery they thought they had.
In the midst of that circle of fear, the girl collapsed to her knees. Her hands trembled, sinking into the cold mud, while her broken voice scratched the night:
—H... help me... please... no... I don't want... —her breath mixed with stifled sobs and drops of mud sticking to her cheeks.
Rei slowly straightened her back. Her shoulders heaved with each heavy breath, transforming the icy air into white steam that billowed from her mouth like the smoke of a cornered beast. She ran the back of her hand across her forehead, brushing away a trickle of rain that clouded her vision.
His eyes...
They were two blades of steel that pierced the big man who was advancing, rusty chain in hand, trying to swallow the terror that was climbing up the back of his neck.
The leader spat to the side, his jaw clenched, split from old fights.
"W-who the hell are you, brat?" he roared, but the crack in his voice betrayed his fear.
Rei tilted her head slightly, her lips taut like a bowstring about to snap. She spoke softly, so softly that each word seemed to rend the storm itself:
—...I'm just a guy who should be home... sleeping... —He took a deep breath, letting out a growl through his teeth—.
But because of you... —he fixed his gaze on each one, one by one, with a calmness that hurt— now I have to break every damn tooth... for daring to touch her.
A thunderclap crashed overhead, illuminating Rei's dark silhouette, his coat clinging to his body, his fists clenched as if holding all the rage in the world.
The girl looked up through tears, her lips trembling.
"Go away... please... run away... they... are going to..." but her voice broke when she saw those eyes. They weren't the eyes of someone running away. They were those of a wolf. Cold. Lonely. Impossible to trap.
One of the thugs gulped, his chain clinking as it hit the wet ground.
The big man gritted his teeth until they were almost broken. "Crush him! Destroy him before he tears us apart one by one!"
And then... Rei let out a short, hoarse laugh, muffled by the rain:
"...Come on. Try it . If this night must burn... let it burn with me standing there."
His feet slid on guard.
The girl, her knees sinking into the cold mud, barely raised her face, her soaked hair plastered to her forehead and her cheeks smeared with dirt. Her lips trembled, the words catching in her throat before coming out in a stifled sob:
"Run away!" she coughed, the rain mixing with the salty taste of her tears. "Please... you can't do it alone...! Go before I...!"
But his voice died the instant his eyes met Rei's. A gaze so sharp, so icy, so absolute... it seemed to belong not to a human in the rain, but to an immortal wolf who didn't know the word surrender.
For an eternal second, the storm fell silent around them. And the girl felt a chill so deep her heart forgot to beat. A new, strange fear: not of the bullies, nor of dying right there... But of that shadow of flesh and fury that loomed before them as if the rest of the world no longer mattered.
He swallowed, his hands trembling in the muddy puddle.
"W-what... are you...?" he murmured, barely audible through the flashes of lightning.
But Rei didn't even blink.
A distant roar of thunder was her only response as she slowly flexed her shoulders, like a wolf breaking its last chain.
The thugs cracked their knuckles, one cracked his neck, another spat on the ground with a disgusting gesture. They closed in on Rei like a pack of hyenas scenting weakness—or so they thought. The wind swirled around them, whipping up their cheap jackets, while the rain beat down on the backs of their necks.
The leader, a muscular bull covered in faded tattoos, let out a laugh that echoed like a caged roar:
"You'll pay dearly for this, brat!" His chain rattled like a live snake.
"Prepare to freeze to death in this storm!"
One of the thugs stepped forward, pretending to throw a punch straight to Rei's face—his fist stopped a breath away from Rei's cheek. They expected to see him blink. Tremble. Back away.
But Rei didn't even breathe differently: his eyelids narrowed slightly, as if he were watching an insect trying to bite his skin.
Another sneered from behind, beating his chest with his fists:
"Look at him! He's rooted to the ground in fear!" He doubled over with laughter, but it didn't spread to anyone.
Someone to his left gulped when he saw that Rei didn't even blink.
The thunder swallowed the mockery for a moment.
In that second, everyone felt something they didn't want to admit: That brat... was too still. Too cold. He didn't look like meat waiting to be devoured. He looked like a void ready to swallow them all.
The leader raised the chain, clicked his tongue in rage, and shouted,
"Don't waste time, you idiots! Finish this bastard off once and for all! Don't play with him anymore!"
Rei exhaled slowly.
Her breath turned into a white mist. Her eyes lifted, meeting each one, like nails driven into her chest. "Come, all of you," she said, her voice barely a thread, but louder than the storm .
"I expect no mercy... nor will I give it."
The wind broke into a howl.
And in the center of the hyena pack... The wolf dropped his last chain.
One of the thugs, with a square jaw and fists the size of bricks, gritted his teeth, swallowing the fear burning his tongue. He saw Rei's back, still, tense, exposed in the rain like an easy target.
"Now!" he spat through his teeth, launching himself at full speed. His fist, charged with fury and fear, cut through the air with a dull hiss.
But just when the flesh should have sunk into Rei's neck, something impossible happened.
Rei didn't see it. Or hear it.
She just felt it. She knew it.
As if his blood had awakened an ancestral roar, his muscles tensed without his mind's permission. The world slowed; each drop of rain seemed to float like shards of glass suspended in nothingness.
With a movement as graceful as it was deadly, he turned his head just a whisper of a second before impact. His eyes—two abysses lit by an unknown fire—met the shadow of the fist that was coming to crush him.
And then, without thinking, his body reacted. His right foot pivoted in the mud, sliding with inhuman precision. His shoulder angled, missing the blow by a hair's breadth. Rain splattered in an arc around his face, illuminated briefly by a flash of lightning.
WHAM!
The thug passed by, his fist slamming into the concrete bridge post, shattering with a sickening crunch. A stifled scream erupted from his throat, a mixture of surprise and pain.
—Ugh ...! W-what the hell...?! —he stammered, holding his split knuckles, shaking like a wet dog .
Rei didn't respond immediately. Her breath was a cloud of steam dissipating beneath the storm.
She opened and closed her right hand. She felt a tingling beneath her skin, like electricity boiling through her veins.
I didn't understand what it was. I just knew I was awake.
And I wasn't going back to sleep.
His lips curved slightly, a grimace that was neither a smile nor a threat. Rather, a promise that no one would be left unharmed if she dared to touch him again.
"...Don't try to touch me from behind again..." he said, his voice as cold as the wind whipping across the bridge. "I promise you won't raise those arms again."
The other thugs looked at each other. One gulped. Another took a step back, tripping over a puddle. The leader—with the chain wrapped around his forearm—scowled, breathing through his mouth like a bull before charging.
"Don't look at him like that, you idiots!" he roared. "He's playing with you! Smash his face in! Now!"
As if his voice were a spark in a powder keg, two thugs rushed at once. One with a metal pipe, the other with a rusty knife that flashed like lightning.
Rei inhaled.
A heartbeat. Another. The world sank back into slow motion. The tube sliced through the air. The knife sought his side.
His instinct , not his mind, guided him .
He stepped into a puddle, twisted his hip, caught the pole guy's wrist mid-flight, and twisted with a force a seventeen-year-old boy couldn't have mustered.
CRACK!
A scream, metal falling into the mud.
The knife-wielder hesitated for half a second, the worst mistake of his life. Rei blocked his wrist with her forearm, drove her knee into the attacker's stomach, and folded him like wet paper.
THUD!
The man fell to his knees, vomiting bile and whatever little courage he had left. Rei pushed him away contemptuously, as if pushing trash out of the way.
He looked up at the leader, his eyes sparkling in the storm, and said in a hoarse whisper that everyone heard:
—One by one... or would you all prefer to come at once?
Decide for yourself. I don't have all night.
The wind roared through the steel beams of the bridge, carrying with it the voice of a boy who, on that cursed night, ceased to be human and became something closer to a living shadow.
A demon awakened beneath the storm .
One of the thugs, his face red with fury, pointed a trembling finger at him, his voice torn with rage and fear:
—Damn brat... I'm going to break every damn bone in your body!
With a guttural roar, he launched himself straight at Rei, raising one leg like a battering ram. A kick so savage it kicked up water and mud in its wake.
But Rei...
Rei was no longer a normal boy.
He leaped. So light, so clean, that his silhouette was outlined like a feather dancing in the rain. His wet boots brushed the gust of wind that kicked up, and he landed behind the beast, silent as a ghost.
The thug didn't even have time to turn around when another, with a shaved head and arms like logs, stood in front of Rei, throwing punches like hammers, one after another, desperate to break that impossible calm.
WHAM! WHAM! WHAM!
But each punch cut only air and rain. Rei bent her torso, tilted her neck, took a step back, then another, dodging each blow as if time itself had become her ally.
Her eyes—gleaming with an almost supernatural brilliance—saw every muscle tense, every drop of sweat leap from the attacker's forehead, every mistake before it was born.
The bully roared in frustration,
"Stay still, you damn rat!"
But another was already coming from his right flank.
Two fists charged with fury met in perfect synchrony, seeking to crush him from both sides.
Rei bent his knees.
And he let himself fall.
Mud splashed, the storm swallowed a muffled groan, and the two thugs crashed into each other with a sharp, excruciating thud:
CRACK!
An echo reverberated under the bridge. The two big men collapsed, unconscious, drooling blood and rain onto the cracked concrete.
Rei stood up slowly, her wet bangs plastered to her forehead, her breath turning to cold smoke. Her eyes, fixed on the sprawled bodies, narrowed slightly as she murmured:
"...Before you rush into a fight... you should learn to read your opponent well.
" His voice was a soft thunder, laced with contempt. "Punching blindly only leaves your flesh like garbage in the rain."
The other four, along with the leader of the chain, froze for a moment.
Fury mixed with a sticky fear that stuck to their throats. One, tattooed up to his chin, hissed through his teeth:
—This brat thinks he's better than us...
—Crush him now! Bite him like dogs, damn it!
The three most impulsive ones shouted in unison, their boots splashing in puddles as they launched themselves at Rei, one from the front, one from the left, one from behind, teeth clenched, fists like stones.
From a corner of the bridge, the girl—shivering with cold and fear, soaked to the bone—stared, unable to blink. Her mind was in turmoil:
"What is he...? How can he move like that...? They're monsters... and he... he makes them look like insects..."
Meanwhile, Rei was barely breathing. Her razor-sharp pupils captured every microsecond, every clumsy step, every intentional attack before it became a fist.
A fist flew straight at his face. Rei cocked his head—the fist whizzed past a millimeter from his cheek. Another tried an elbow to the ribs. Rei spun, the rain following his spin like a sheet of dancing water. The third kicked out, desperate. Rei dug in a shoulder, caught the leg, lifted it with a sharp twist of the hips... and the guy fell backward, the air escaping from his lungs in a ridiculous screech.
One, panting like a rabid dog, spat out mud and growled,
"You bastard! You're just a scared little brat! You don't even hit us!"
Rei glanced at them, her lips curving slightly—a hint of a smile that wasn't mockery, but a promise of ruin.
She whispered, so low that the wind had to carry her voice:
—I don't fear anything.
I just choose when... and how to break them.
He pushed off.
His boots splashed mud and water.
A knee to the first's ribs—a dull sound, flesh giving way.
A downward elbow to the second's neck—a stifled grunt, legs giving way. And with a feline twist, a spinning kick that drew a perfect arc of rain and fury:
WHAM!
All three bodies crashed into the mud, whining like beaten dogs, writhing in the rain that could no longer wash away their shame.
Rei exhaled, steam escaping from her chapped lips.
"...Simple hits, huh?" Her eyes lifted to the chain leader. "I told you... they can run away... they still have legs."
The leader stared at him with bloodshot eyes. His chain rattled in his closed fist. The storm roared like an angry god among steel beams. The girl, on her knees, covered her mouth with both hands, her heart pounding like a drum.
"He's not human... he can't be..."
Rei took a step forward, sinking his boot into the puddle, his eyes burning like hot coals.
"So...
" he growled, as a crash of thunder illuminated his silhouette.
"Are you next?"
In front of him, the leader—a broad-shouldered man with faded tattoos covering his neck and forearms, scars that told stories of fights he'd won the hard way—breathed like a caged bull. His chain dangled from his cuff, heavy, rusted in places, stained with something that might once have been blood.
He glanced at his companions, lying unconscious or moaning in the storm. A nervous tic throbbed at his temple. He spat to one side, a red spit of suppressed anger.
" You embarrass me.
" His voice, deep as thunder, swallowed even the murmur of the rain.
"A brat...! A damned brat with no muscle, no knife, nothing... and look how he left you!"
He leaned slightly toward Rei, dragging the chain along the ground, the metallic sound mingling with the rumblings of the sky. His smile was a violent cut in the dying light of a flickering lantern.
"And you...
" He licked his lips like a rabid dog. "I'll give you credit, scumbag. You're the first one who's ever made me lose my temper. But listen carefully, brat: I'm going to break every fucking bone in your body while you're breathing... And then, as a reward, I'm going to take that little bitch with me. I'm going to make her scream so loud that not even a storm can drown out her cries."
A flash of lightning lit Rei's eyes.
There was no fear there. Not even fury. Just... an icy calm, so profound it chilled her. The wind swirled through her soaked coat, billowing it like a cloak of living shadows.
Rei tilted her head slightly, her bangs dripping with water, her breath steamy.
"So..."
he murmured, each syllable laced with subtle contempt. "You come with a chain, a knife, and a dog's tongue... and I only have my fists?" His smile was barely a ghost, a mockery so quiet it froze the air. "How unfair to you."
The leader burst out laughing. It echoed between beams and wet concrete.
—HAHAHA! Loudmouth to the core!
Let's see if you can still hold that tongue when I drag it across the floor!
CLANG!
The girl, a few feet away, moaned in terror, her throat tightening with helplessness.
Her eyes fixed on Rei's back, so thin compared to that muscular bull.
"Run...! Please escape! I'm not worth dying for..."
But her voice was barely a muffled murmur in his mind.
The leader slammed the chain against the ground
— CLANG!
Sparks and water droplets splashed as if the storm celebrated its fury.
With a guttural roar, he launched himself at Rei like a rampaging bull.
The chain hissed, seeking to bite into his flesh, wrap itself around his neck, crush him.
But Rei...
Rei didn't even blink.
His feet slid a step to the left—a clean turn, like wind escaping a trap. The leader snarled, twirled the chain through the air, a steel whip that sliced through the rain and barely grazed the tip of Rei's coat. A second lash: Rei leaned back, the chain passing over his chest, hissing like an angry snake.
The leader , frustrated, lashed out with his free hand, trying to forcefully grab her neck.
But Rei moved like smoke—one step, and she was behind him.
You know what's worse than a strong enemy?
A predictable one.
Rei's voice filtered like poison straight into the leader's ear.
And then THUD!
The first punch.
Sharp. Crushing. A straight shot to the ribs, so precise it split the air.
The big man let out a muffled cry, the chain slipping from his wet hand and hitting the concrete with a dull clink. He doubled over, gasping for air, but another blow met him in the face—a fist from Rei that felt like an iron hammer wrapped in flesh.
The leader staggered back, spitting saliva and blood, his eyes wide with pure hatred and humiliation.
—I swear... brat... —he spat, between gasps and lightning— that I'm going to destroy you... with my own hands...
Rei took a step, flexing her fists, the shadow of her silhouette splitting with each flash of lightning.
"Try it," he replied, his voice calm... like a sentence.
Rei watched him, motionless, beneath the rain that soaked her hair until it plastered to her cheeks. Not a tremor, not a flinch.
Her eyes—two contained embers—seemed to pierce the bully's rotten fury.
The leader let out a guttural cry and suddenly surged forward. His body, heavy but surprisingly swift, cut through the space between them like a rampaging bull.
He spun the chain around his head, a steel serpent whirring in the storm.
—DIEEEEE!
WHOOSH—CLANG!
The metal whip lashed out straight at Rei's face. But Rei wasn't there. She shifted to the left with a minimal twist of her ankle, leaving only a dark blur where her head had been.
The chain whistled millimeters from his ear, cutting through a curtain of water.
The leader didn't slow down. He roared another curse, spun on his heel, and slammed the chain down again in a brutal horizontal sweep.
WHOOSH—WHOOSH!
Sparks flew as the steel struck a nearby post, splitting it like a match.
But Rei, with a single fluid step backward, avoided the fury of each blow.
The girl, kneeling a few meters away, covered her mouth with both hands, trembling:
"I-impossible... The chain doesn't even touch him! That guy... what is he?!" he whispered, his eyes wide open, reflecting the duel of shadows and lightning.
The leader, sweaty and soaked, was growling like a caged animal:
"STOP DODGING!" he yelled, spitting saliva and hatred.
He lashed out with a free punch, his arm wrapped in the broken chain like a spiked glove.
Rei blocked. A slight twist of the wrist, an impossible angle. The chain grazed his shoulder, leaving barely a scratch. Without losing momentum, the leader launched an upward knee, seeking to break his ribs.
Rei spun sideways, her knee brushing his waist. She used that tiny bit of space to pivot on her heel and slip behind the big man like a wolf after its prey.
The leader barely felt the presence behind him, when—
CRACK!
A sharp elbow to the back of the head.
The guy stumbled forward, took two false steps, but roared again. He spun around in rage, raised the chain like a makeshift mace, and swung it down, straight at Rei's head.
But Rei was already in the air.
A clean, feline leap lifted him above the attack. His boots passed inches from the thug's face.
The leader looked up just in time to see that dark silhouette fall like a reverse lightning bolt.
Rei landed behind him, her feet splashing water in a perfect circle.
The big man, blinded by rage, spun again and threw an iron-clad right hook.
Rei leaned back, his arched spine almost touching the ground, dodging the fist by a hair's breadth. From that impossible position, he rolled to the side, stood up, and caught the chain with his right hand.
He pulled her.
The leader lost his balance and stumbled forward.
Rei bent her knees, twisted her wrist, and with a sharp motion—
CRACK!
She snapped the chain right at a weakened link. A metallic sound was lost in the roar of the storm.
The leader looked at him, his eyes filled with fury and fear.
He now had only a useless piece of cloth hanging from his bloody fist.
—You... you... damn demon...!
Rei moved forward.
One step, another. Her boots echoed through the puddles, a drumbeat announcing the end.
The leader stepped back, raising his bare fists. He reached for a hidden knife from his belt. Rei saw him.
The instant the gleam of steel appeared, Rei shot forward: a flash of shadow in the rain.
A sharp knee to the solar plexus.
The leader coughed up foamy saliva. A reverse punch to the jaw. A crunch, and a tooth flew out in the raindrops.
The big guy fell to his knees, his eyes rolling back. He tried to utter an insult, but only a choked phlegm came out.
Rei grabbed him by the collar of his shirt, lifting him slightly, her breathing clashing with that of the defeated monster.
—This ends here —Rei with his voice roaring louder than thunder.
And he let it go.
The leader collapsed on his back, the mud swallowed him.
The other thugs looked at their boss's body—a mountain reduced to a twitching bag of flesh—and fear gripped their spines. One of them shouted, his voice as high-pitched as a slaughtered pig:
—BOSS! BOSS, WAKE UP!
—IT CAN'T BE! THAT DAMN BRAT...!
They rushed forward, splashing in the mud, trying to revive him, moving him clumsily.
One of them raised his hand to his mouth, trembling like a leaf:
—He's... he's still breathing! Quick, get him up!
Rei took a step.
The water crunched beneath her boot. Her shadow spilled over the four remaining thugs, dark, formless.
His voice, a whisper that tore through the drum of rain, nailed them to the ground:
— If they're still here...
The thugs stared at each other, gulping, terror clouding the rage that had previously raged in their chests.
One of them screamed hysterically:
—NO, NO! PICK IT UP! WE'RE LEAVING, WE'RE LEAVING RIGHT NOW!
As they lifted him up like a broken sack, the leader opened one eye.
Blood gushed from his broken nose, his voice a rusty roar of pure hatred:
—BRAT... DAMN BRAT...!
He choked on his own saliva, but continued spitting out venom:—I SWEAR...! NEITHER YOU NOR THAT DAMN BRAT WILL BE SAVED ...!
—I SWEAR TO ALL OF YOU! —He spat out more blood, mixed with mud
—I WILL COME BACK... AND MAKE THEM BEG TO DIE!
One of the lackeys tried to silence him:
" Chief , shut up, for God's sake!"
The leader, his throat broken from screaming, let out a moan, half laugh, half cry of rage.
"T-Take me!" he roared, drooling blood. "DON'T FORGET YOUR DAMN FACES...!"
The others, soaked to the bone, barely lifted him up. Their boots sloshed, skidding in puddles, as they fled, carrying their defeated monster like carrion.
Rei followed them with her gaze, motionless as a living statue.
The soaked girl could barely hold on with her trembling hands. She murmured, her voice cracking, looking at the boy who was breathing steam in the storm:
—H-he's not human... that boy... what the hell is he...?
The girl, still kneeling in the cold mud, felt her hands shaking uncontrollably.
The wind whipped against her face, soaking it further, but she couldn't even blink. Her eyes were fixed on the dark figure that had just reduced a pack of beasts to mere stray dogs fleeing with their tails between their legs.
Her breathing became erratic, as if every drop of rain was burning her throat.
In her mind, the question echoed again and again, so loud she felt she might scream:
What is... this boy?
She tried to move, but her legs refused to let up. A spasm in her back made her hunch over, barely holding on with her elbows buried in the mud.
Fear spoke to him, cruel and merciless:
I can't hurt him... I can't run away... if I wanted to, I could kill myself right here and no one would stop me...
Her lips trembled. A thread of voice escaped, barely audible over the drumbeat of the storm:
—I-it's a monster... a monster dressed as a human...
He swallowed, feeling a metallic taste mixed with the rain and cold sweat in his mouth.
His gaze lifted slightly, colliding again with Rei's silhouette: still, breathing in steam as if nothing that had just happened was extraordinary.
An agonizing pounding in her chest forced her to bite her lip to keep from crying again.
The words, as fragile as her faith, slipped from her cracked lips:
—W-what will become of me now...?
I-I have nowhere to go... nor the strength to run... No one will come... No one will save me from... him...
Her vision blurred, a mixture of tears and lightning.
The wind struck her again, as if forcing her to face reality:
before her stood no knight, no hero.
Just a wolf...
...and she was the prey that was still breathing.
— End of Chapter —
📖 Author's Comment ✒️
You don't need to understand everything
Some stories just need to be felt.
Thank you for joining me once again.
See you in the next chapter...
— 夢と雨と言葉の仙人
— Yume to ame to kotoba no sennin
— The Hermit of Dreams, Rain, and Words
— The Great Master Makoto-sama