Chapter 2 - The Anonymous Arrival
Rain drummed against the windows, relentless and cold. The streets outside were slick and dark, washing away the world in endless gray. Inside, the room was almost pitch black. No electricity. No proper light bulbs. A single flashlight rested on the table, its beam bouncing weakly off the faces gathered around it.
Akio and his friends huddled close, shadows stretching long across the floor. The envelope lay in the center, wrapped in layers of thick, almost sinister paper. Each fold seemed heavier than the last, like it was carrying a weight far beyond the paper itself.
Raka leaned forward, her cigarette long since extinguished, eyes narrowing. Hikata shuffled impatiently, glancing between the envelope and the flashlight. Even Misaki, usually precise and calm, sat stiffly, hands clasped in front of her, a faint tremor in her fingers.
Akio reached out. His pulse thumped in his ears. He had faced fire, smoke, and the ruins of the lab before—but this? This was different. This was deliberate. Personal.
He cut through the outer layers carefully. The envelope unfolded like flesh being torn open. Inside was a single sheet of paper, typed in stark, merciless letters:
We are not backing down.
Next arrival: Block.
No signature. Only a hint of the lab's presence. Only a cold warning.
A sound behind them—a click, a hiss—and the world exploded.
A bomb.
The room erupted in smoke and sparks. Akio's instincts kicked in. Raka shoved Akio to the side, Akio knocking over the table to shield his friends in the process to protect them from the incoming blast. The walls shivered. Shelves toppled. Papers flew in a storm around them.
And then, silence.
Akio coughed, sweat and ash stinging his eyes. He looked around. The room was wrecked—shattered glass, scorched wood—but every one of his friends was breathing, alive.
He let out a shaky laugh, a mixture of relief and fury. "Doesn't matter. You can burn the world down around me... as long as you don't touch them."
Raka dusted herself off, smirking despite the fear lingering in her eyes. "You really are impossible."
Hikata's grin tightened, teeth clenched. "They think we'll back down. They think we'll run. They don't know us at all—whoever they are."
Akio's jaw stiffened. He knew exactly who they were. But some truths were too heavy to share—for now. That story would have to wait for if he would may very much tell his friends and allys at that eventually!?...
Akio picked up the note again, staring at the cold, impersonal text. His jaw tightened. "The lab... they're still coming. They're not done. And they'll keep coming until we do something."
Misaki's voice cut softly through the heavy air. "Then we fight. Together."
The flashlight flickered, casting their long, determined shadows across the destroyed room. Outside, the rain washed everything away, but inside, their resolve burned brighter than ever.
Akio folded the paper slowly, letting the weight of it sink in. Block. That was the next arrival. A new threat. A new test.
He stood, shoulders squared. "Let them come," he said, voice low but steady. "We're not going anywhere. Hukitaske Pharmacy isn't backing down. And neither am I."
They looked at him—friends, comrades, the family they'd chosen—and for a moment, even in the wreckage and the darkness, there was hope.
The lab wasn't finished.
But neither were they.
[Next: Chapter 3 — Operation Erasure Begins]