Chapter 5
Inside a burning skyscraper, flames roared everywhere—howling like a broken guitar played by the screams of humans fused together. They had become grotesque masses of flesh, mouths and eyes melted into the walls, shrieking as blood poured down. Some of their eyes glared with rage, others pleaded with despair, and a few desperately tried to regrow arms, legs, or skin. Their cries were suffused with hopelessness.
They were once human. Some had dreams, some had families, some were drunks, criminals, or weary office workers. But now they had all been fused into something no longer human.
Before them stood a girl.
Her beauty could have been considered innocent, even cute—but in their eyes, she was a demon wrapped in human flesh. Her golden eyes glowed in the dark, her skin was pale and soft like cat fur, and her long white hair drifted like silk in the fire's heat. Her hands were delicate, resembling the tiny paws of a snow–white British Shorthair cat. She was small—fragile even—standing only about 144 to 147 cm tall.
Yet her gaze was filled with amusement, mocking the desperation of the humans before her.
Among them, one pair of eyes stood out. Unlike the rest, filled with pain and madness, these deep blue eyes were sharp, awake—burning with restrained fury. Kenshin. Though he was fused into the mass, he clenched his teeth as if trying to crush the agony itself.
Ayu's cruel smile widened. Her golden eyes glittered as she gazed at her "artwork"—once human beings, now broken memories. She devoured every memory: the peaceful days with family, the bitter failures, the pain, the joy. Their screams were music to her diseased mind.
For she was not human. She was born of the Anti–World—a realm shaped from the darkest despair and brightest hopes of humankind, a chaotic, insane mirror of reality. And here, she feasted on their suffering.
But then…
Her mocking eyes narrowed with sudden irritation. From the sea of screams, a voice rose—not of despair, but of contempt.
"Just a child… pretending to play god."
"Sooner or later, the Organization will erase you."
Her gaze turned. Those blue eyes—Kenshin's—locked onto hers. He did not scream like the others. He only ground his teeth, glaring with a will that sought to destroy her.
Ayu's grin shifted—from mocking, to curious, to delighted. A spark of joy flickered in her. Here was something rare—a soul unbroken by her torment.
She snapped her fingers.
Every fused body exploded into gore. Blood painted the walls, tables, and broken computers like crimson rain.
Outside, flames consumed the skyscraper. Glass shattered and fell in a glittering cascade of knives, piercing the burning cars below. Corpses, blood, and steel flew skyward before the building finally collapsed in a cloud of smoke and dust.
And from the haze, two golden eyes emerged.
Ayu stepped out calmly, ready for her next hunt—ready to slaughter anything she laid eyes on.
---
Elsewhere, inside an armored vehicle battered and bloodstained, Hoshino and Mei rested after a brutal fight with zombies. Qu, too terrified by the gore she had witnessed, had fainted in the corner. The vehicle's frame was dented and cracked as if beaten in endless collisions.
Mei pressed her finger to her temple, looking exhausted as she turned to Hoshino.
Mei
> "Hey… Hoshino. Are you always this quiet?"
She hugged her rifle lazily, as if preparing to nap. Hoshino only nodded in silence, her mismatched eyes—one gray, one blue—staring unblinking at Mei, expressionless as ever. She looked less like a person and more like a ghost that had forgotten how to blink.
Mei sighed, her eyes heavy with fatigue but tinged with curiosity. After five years together, she had never once seen Hoshino close both eyes or show a single emotion beyond that frozen mask.
Mei
> "Seriously…"
Suddenly—
With a speed beyond human perception, the armored vehicle's steel was pierced. A delicate hand reached through, brushing aside Mei's white hair and pressing against her head.
Ayu's voice whispered like a lullaby, chilling and sweet.
Ayu
> "Good night…"
Mei and Hoshino's eyes widened in shock, their muscles locking too slowly to react. But—
At that instant, Qu's trembling hands gripped her M4A1.
0.1 seconds: grip.
0.3 seconds: safety off, round chambered.
0.4 seconds: trigger pulled.
Bullets screamed forward, shredding Ayu's hand to pieces. Flesh and bone exploded across Mei's hair and Hoshino's face.
Ayu tilted her head, blinking slowly, her voice playful and curious.
Ayu
> "Oh… interesting. That actually stings a little."
Before their eyes, her hand regrew—bones knitting, tendons weaving, muscles twitching, skin crawling back like living fabric. Blood poured over her face as she caressed herself with her new hand, smiling in wild delight at the scent and warmth.
Mei's eyes widened in horror. Hoshino's expression barely changed, but every hair on her body stood on end.
Mei
> "No… impossible… Qu…?"
Qu was shaking uncontrollably, her weapon slipping from her lap. Tears spilled as she clung to Mei, trembling like a terrified child.
From outside, Sora descended in a flash, slicing Ayu's leg clean off. Dark blood sprayed as her scythe—black as shadow, glowing with deathly light—slashed again and again with relentless speed.
Lucas only smirked at Sora's berserk frenzy.
Ayu's body was shredded, but with a snarl she summoned a book—its cover stained with blood, its pages about the sinking of the battleship Yamato. From its pages emerged massive cannons and warplanes, which she hurled at Sora. But Sora moved too fast, cutting through or dodging every assault.
Ayu
> "You… you dare… it hurts… ahhh—Mother—!"
Spewing blood, Ayu retreated into the shadows, body mangled but alive, vanishing at terrifying speed.
Moments later, black vehicles rolled onto the scene, bearing the emblem of AEI.
From within, a childish voice chimed sweetly:
Ayumi
> "Hello~ I'm Ayumi from AEI! Wishing everyone a lovely day and—"
Her voice twisted, dropping into something venomous and demonic.
> "—your bodies will be torn like rags. Your flesh will be crushed like livestock. You'll scream like dogs as bullets rip your skin and shred you into blood and bone."
Gunfire erupted. Dozens of mounted machine guns lit up the street, thousands of rounds tearing through asphalt and stone.
Lucas raised his gaze. The ground cracked and collapsed into a wall of debris, shielding them from the barrage. At the same time, soldiers inside the AEI vehicles screamed as their bodies convulsed, rupturing in showers of blood.
But then—
Sora and Lucas froze. Their powers—suddenly cut off.
The earth crumbled beneath everyone—Mei, Qu, Hoshino, and the Alpha-13 units alike—all dragged into a bottomless abyss. Even far-off defense forces, guarding civilians, fell screaming into the void.
And from below, the crimson glow of the Anti–World began to rise…
---
Tokyo – Elsewhere.
A girl with golden hair like flowing silk walked through the winds of Akihabara. Her emerald eyes were large and warm yet sharp with seriousness. Her porcelain skin glowed beneath a crisp white lab coat. At just 155 cm, she seemed oddly cute compared to her title: Dr. Elena.
Beside her strode Light. His tangled reddish-brown hair looked untouched for decades, one eye a deep crimson abyss of hardened magma, the other a vast oceanic blue. Half his skin was burned black, cursed by fire, the rest pale and rough. At 170 cm, his presence was suffocating.
Elena skipped along, eating cotton candy with a mischievous smile, while Light carried her mountain of shopping bags with a sigh. In Akihabara, surrounded by cosplayers and eccentric fashion, they blended in strangely well.
Elena
> "Neee, oni–chaaaan~ wasn't today fun?"
Light glared at her, sipping his cola, voice weary.
Light
> "Shut it, idiot… You do realize, don't you? While we're here wasting time, we've abandoned tens of thousands of our comrades fighting in Shibuya…"
Before Elena could answer, the ground beneath them twisted violently, collapsing like an earthquake.
Both were swallowed into the endless abyss.
Elena's eyes widened in shock at the glowing void that awaited them below.
[To be continued]