"Status report."
Echo One's voice cut clean through the static, calm and clipped. The helicopter's rotors thundered above the skeletal frame of the unfinished hospital, floodlights and sensors sweeping over the chaos below.
"Both entities are engaged," came the reply through comms — Owl Three. His voice crackled, layered beneath the whine of machinery. "One appears humanoid; the other fits parameters for a Type-Five Shroud Entity: An Avatar of a Greater Entity."
Echo One's brow furrowed beneath his visor.
'An Avatar? Of which being? It doesn't seem to fit any in our records.' Echo One thought to himself.
"I see," he murmured. "Pilot, bring up a full spectrum visual. Infrared, X-ray, anomalous overlay — I want everything."
"Copy that, sir."
The displays in front of him flickered to life. Dozens of screens shimmered with data — heat signatures bending and folding, reality distortion readings spiking off-scale. Through the interference, two figures clashed: one small, human-shaped, blazing with a flickering orange hue; the other a mass of shadow and chaos that refused to maintain form.
"Lock scanners on both," Echo One ordered. "Prepare Anchor Charges — type V anti-ontological rounds, safeties off. The Type-Five is priority for neutralization."
"Owl Three, arm your STCT. You will be at the forefront of the assault." Echo One further intoned.
"Copy that, sir. What about the humanoid?" Owl Three asked.
Echo One paused, studying the screen. The smaller combatant moved with purpose, striking with something human — almost desperate. The system overlays failed to identify him.
But Echo One could tell, he fought like a normal boy in a desperate fight for survival.
"Keep him alive," Echo One said finally. His tone was low, deliberate. "Once the anomaly's neutralized, we bring him in. Full debrief under Containment Protocol Seven."
He leaned forward as the pilot adjusted their position, the helicopter banking into a circling pattern.
"Maintain altitude and standby for my mark," he added. "If the situation escalates—"
He stopped, watching the monitor as a flash of orange light erupted below.
"...you'll know when to fire."
—————
Kenji barely dodged a tendril aimed at his head. He could feel it, the anomaly's attempts to shift time, space, and reality just to declare him struck. But the chains around him glowed, and Kenji grounded himself on the subjective causality and reality his 'World' adhered to.
He swung the bat towards the tendril, the parody of ontological form glitching at the contact — ultimately shattering. Kenji ran forward with a yell, one of emotion rather than logic.
He wound the chain tighter around his arm and lashed out. The links snapped forward like a serpent, lengthening his reach. The anomaly twisted aside, its void-like eyes curving into a smile that shouldn't exist — a grin without joy, a face without form.
Then the air sang.
A low, hollow resonance echoed — reality itself warping to its unholy melody. The world convulsed, and despite Kenji's hold on his reality, it bent. The floor vanished beneath him.
He was falling.
The hospital was gone — replaced by an endless gulf of rafters and frames, suspended in a void that defied light and distance. There was no ground, no horizon. Only an infinite skeleton of metal stretching forever.
Kenji grit his teeth. The chain snapped upward, wrapping around a beam. He swung in a wild arc and crashed onto a rafter, the impact driving the air from his lungs.
Silence followed.
The anomaly had disappeared.
Then—
THWACK!
A blow cracked across his face. Kenji's body slammed through the scaffolding — metal screaming as beams buckled and fell. Blood sprayed into the air, hanging weightless in this impossible space.
He coughed, crimson spilling from his lips. His orange eyes pulsed, flickering as his system fought back. For a heartbeat, the real world bled through — the hospital, the debris, the rain. Then it was gone, consumed by the void.
Kenji staggered upright on a fractured beam. Across from him, the anomaly emerged. That grin — wide, empty, eternal.
He swung. Miss.
Again. Miss.
The third should have connected. Instead, the bat passed through — like swinging at smoke. The creature existed beyond him, slipping in and out of higher dimensions.
Kenji couldn't hit the anomaly.
But it could hit him.
Another blow — crack — his ribs cracked and fractured.
Then his arm — crack — bone bent and shifted abnormally.
Then, his leg — crack — knees shattered within his flesh.
He could feel the bones stabbing out of his skin.
Each strike folded him deeper into agony, his bones screaming, blood dripping from his chin.
And still, he stood.
Even as the world forgot its own shape, Kenji clung to his — one human heartbeat refusing to vanish.
His chains burned with light — the metal links alive with a furious hum that split the air. The anomaly's hand froze mid-thrust, its form refused. The chains pulsed once, and reality itself rejected the intrusion, denying the higher realm's authority.
————————
[Subjective Law: All that Kenji fights exists within the same realm.]
————————
The world bent to his declaration.
The anomaly flickered behind him in a blur of impossible motion, aiming for his neck — but Kenji was already turning. His eyes flashed orange, the color of defiance, and his hand shot up, catching the creature's limb in his grasp.
The being hesitated. For something that had transcended the laws of man and matter, the act of being touched was an impossibility. For a moment — just a flicker — it feared.
Kenji felt it. He liked to think it did too.
With a snarl, he tightened his grip. Muscles screamed. Chains bit into his flesh. Then —
CRASH!
He swung the anomaly down with all his strength. The impact echoed through the void. Metal screamed and split beneath them, beams bending, snapping. The creature's distorted body shattered the rafter like glass, its own warped form fracturing, glitching into violent shapes.
Kenji stood over it, chest heaving. The orange light in his eyes flared again, burning brighter than ever.
In his world, even gods could bleed.
The world glitched, and Kenji found himself back on solid ground.
Kenji crashed down onto cold, rusted steel, the echo of impact ricocheting through the skeletal husk of the construction site. He could feel every injury screaming at once.
Pain lanced through his body; bones creaked and ground against each other beneath his skin. His breath came out ragged, wet, and uneven. He coughed — once, twice — before the sound turned guttural.
'Fuck...' He bitterly thought. 'How am I supposed to explain this to Shō.'
Blood and something thicker spilled from his mouth, a grotesque pool of red and white fragments staining the ground below.
Then came the sound — a low, wet distortion.
He looked up. The anomaly was moving. Its shattered, half-rendered body spasmed in twitching frames as its data rewove itself. The process was jagged, unnatural — what should have been instant regeneration played out like a corrupted file trying to remember its original shape.
It looked down at Kenji, its hollow smile and void eyes apathetic to his plight.
Kenji grit his teeth — once more willing his body to stand. But it was no use, his knees protested against the action, his hands refused to listen. He was under its mercy...
'Fuck... don't tell me this is how it ends?'
As his mind wracked with a way out — a voice chattered from a nearby radio transmitter.
"This is Echo One, you are free to engage."
Bang!
The first shot cracked the silence.
Then came the storm.
Muzzle flashes erupted from every direction — rooftops, alleyways, distant scaffolds. A rain of glowing tracers tore through the dark.
RATATATATA!
The air trembled beneath the roar of gunfire.
The anomaly convulsed as Anti-Ontological Rounds tore through it — not merely ripping flesh, but unmaking its concept. Its form fractured, fragmented, spread thin across too many dimensions at once. What had once been coherent began to fold inward, its existence collapsing like a dying star.
Reality rippled — warped under the creature's desperate attempt to flee. The edges of the world flickered, the color bleeding from the scene.
Then a voice crackled through the comms:
"Deploy anchors. Now."
From the rooftops above, black-clad figures moved in perfect synchronization. One dropped to a knee beside a metallic case and slammed a palm onto its surface. The device hissed open — claw-like appendages stabbing deep into the concrete.
Thunk. Clang. Grind.
Blue light surged through the steel, veins of energy threading outward as the Anchor's antenna rose and locked into position. The rippling distortion around the anomaly froze — trapped mid-warp — before snapping back to stillness.
Reality solidified.
"Anchors deployed. Dimensional distortion neutralized."
The anomaly screamed — a noise too broken to belong to a throat — and gunfire resumed in unison.
Tracer fire lit the half-built structure like a storm of lightning. Each impact dissolved more of its impossible flesh, tearing through what little of its existence remained tethered to this plane.
————————
[Anomaly Subjugated!]
————————
The system's imprint pulsed faintly in his mind — a dying echo of orange light. Kenji exhaled, slow and ragged. His body refused to move. Blood soaked his hoodie, his limbs heavy, trembling.
Boots crunched against gravel. Figures in tactical black fanned out, forming a perimeter around him. Rifles lowered, the thunder of combat fading to a low hum of comms chatter.
"Target's down. Area secure."
Kenji could barely lift his head. Through blurred vision, he saw helmets glint under the floodlights — faces hidden behind visors, voices muffled through respirators.
Then came the chatter.
"He's… just a kid?"
"Lucky for us the anomaly was slow. Another minute and it would've wiped us."
"You kidding? That thing was moving against the boy like it knew him. If it was at full strength, full speed, we'd be mopping up pieces of our troop by now."
"Tch. Would've needed Hakurou again—"
The name lingered — sharp enough to pierce through his haze.
'Hakurou?'
He wanted to ask, to demand what they meant. But the thought barely formed before his vision swam.
The world dimmed around him — rifles fading to silhouettes, voices to static. With a final, shallow breath, Kenji's body gave way.
And the boy collapsed into darkness.
—————
He found himself in a void. His mind was deep in its slumber, and Kenji could tell that he was dreaming. He looked to his hands in his sorry, dream-like state.
After-images echoed with every little movement.
Where was he? The boy couldn't tell.
He was in a sea of unending black, a complete and utter void. No up or down, no left or right. No right or wrong, no heaven or hell. A complete and utter void where there was only zero.
"You're here."
A distorted voice called out. An overlay of multiple voices rolled into one. Each either of a different age, sex, or inhuman — echoing all at once. Kenji turned to the source, yet he'd find none. In this blackened void, he'd find nothing but an unending echo.
Then, a figure. It was the same silhouetted anomaly, clearer now. Its black hair was as pitch black as his eyes. Its hair positioned into little flaps resembling cat ears. The smile on his face remained — hollow and broken.
Kenji stumbled back, gripping to try and grab a baseball bat that wasn't here.
The distorted figure stared. And that was enough —
Images, text, and untold amounts of information invaded his mind. He clutched his head within the dream, blood trickling down his nose. He fell onto the ground, mysterious words that meant nothing imprinting into his mind.
"The Black Cat of misfortune."
"The Error, who rejects fate."
"The Ravenlord, who wishes to rule the world."
"The Lone Emperor, seeking to eradicate death."
"The Devil in red, who writhes in perfection."
"The Idealist, who wishes for his dragons to soar."
It paused, then. Its gaze shifting to Kenji. The boy was sprawled on the floor, clutching his stomach as an endless amount of blood spilt. His eyes felt like they'd burst, and his mind felt as if there were nails biting into it.
"The Nameless."
The black cat knelt in front of Kenji. He grabbed him by the hair, forcing him up to look.
"And the End."
Its grin widened, nearly tearing its skin.
"Let's meet properly next time, Ken-chan."
—————
"Hnngh!"
Kenji's eyes snapped open. His body lurched forward — only to be pulled back by various tubes and wires connected to his skin. He gasped for air, his chest rising and falling. Sweat formed on his face, as his blurred vision took in the surroundings.
White walls, and he could barely make out the outline of a computer. Figures moved to and fro, all wearing some form of white coat.
'Am I in a hospital?' Kenji groggily thought.
"Woah, hey — easy there!"
A voice called out. A gloved hand pressed against his shoulders, laying him back then. The blur receded, and he was met with a pair of orange eyes staring back at a pair of red ones.
Getting a better look, the man stood tall — yet his posture was lax. He wore a striped tie over a dress shirt, with a labcoat over his shoulders. His black hair was neat, yet messy all the same. Bangs hanging just above his orange eyes.
His most notable feature was the emerald ring on his ring finger.
"Relax, your vitals are still in the yellow." The man said, his voice gentle. "So try not to push yourself too hard, alright?"
Kenji blinked. His breathing slowed, and he craned his head to the side. Tracing the point from the wires to a monitor to his side, red eyes looked to the numbers. All of it meant nothing to him, but the continuous — BEEP BEEP — was probably a good sign.
The man reached to the side, pressed a few panels and adjusted a few dials. He held his hand out.
"Arm, please." The man politely asked. Kenji blinked, but offered it to the man nonetheless. The man then pressed a gloved hand over his pulse. "Alright, everything seems in order."
Stepping back, the man smiled and nodded. "If you feel uncomfortable in any way shape or form, please tell us."
Kenji took that as his cue to speak. "Uhm... where am I? Who are you? What the hell is going on here?"
The doctor paused for a moment. He pondered on the questions and held up three fingers.
"Question one, I can't tell you. Classified, sorry!" The doctor said. He folded one finger and held up the other two.
"Question two, pleasure to meet you, Hakurou–san. My name is Ametsuchi Minoru. Or Minoru Ametsuchi, here in the states." The doctor said in English, then shifted to Japanese.
"As for the third," He began in Japanese. "After you're fight with the Black Cat Anomaly, you were in critical condition. Luckily, you're big brother, Minoru-nii, managed to save you!"
'Big Brother?' Kenji dryly thought. 'I thought only women did the Onee-chan bit.'
"Sorry," Kenji began in Japanese. "But the big brother role is already taken."
"Shame, Hakurou–san." Minoru replied in English, his tone light. "But I suppose your big brother role's already filled in pretty well by Shō."
Kenji nodded, then paused. Hold on—
"What did you say!?" Kenji asked. "How do you know about Shō?"
Minoru shrugged. Then stuffed both of his hands into his pockets. He looked around, then playfully shifted his gaze to Kenji. Minoru pondered on whether or not it was wise to reveal this. But keeping
"Shō Hakurou. Age 25. Member of the department: Noctua Oculus, of the Choir. Designated by the call sign Owl Three." Minoru uttered those words as if they were practiced. In truth, the good doctor had memorized every single soul apart of the operation.
'Choir? Noctua Oculus? Owl Three? What the hell do any of those terms mean?!' Kenji thought.
He could at least infer that the Choir was an organization. Noctua Oculus was a branch under this organization. And they were tasked with dealing with the supernatural. He had to wonder why he's never had to deal with them up until now.
'What kind of clean-up does Corswain even do?' Kenji pondered.
"Nothing that you said made any damned sense." Kenji said with an exasperated sigh. "Speak English — or at least, Japanese!"
"I can do German." Minoru said, "or French if you prefer. I know a hint of Russian, and Mandarin if you'd like. Maybe something extinct like Latin?"
"Minoru optimus modicus." He recited in Latin.
"What does that mean?" This man was just flexing, Kenji could tell that much.
"It means: there's a lot you clearly don't know, Kenji–san." Minoru said.
"And I'm unsure how much I can explain. I'm just waiting for Luna-san to come over and explain." Minoru let out a deep sigh, air escaped from his nose.
Pulling a nearby chair, Minoru sat and slumped onto the rest. "But he's preoccupied with a bit of paperwork after your interference. Higher-ups are asking for a detailed report about the incident, all thanks to you."
"You're welcome." Kenji dryly said.
"Yeah — thanks for the added work, brat." A dry, unamused voice cut in from a door. A brown-skinned man with amber eyes and black hair stepped in.
If he thought Shō had bags under his eyes, this man looked one bad day away from a total collapse. He wore a simple black suit, and he walked up to Kenji's bed. He had messy black hair, and Kenji thought that he'd collapse
The man then turned to Minoru, amber meeting orange.
"Minoru — I distinctly remember telling you to not interact with the potential anomaly." The man said, his voice dry but bemusement clear in his voice.
Minoru simply shrugged the man's words off, spinning his chair to meet the man head on.
"Sorry, Rai — but as Kenji's doctor, it's only fair that I get the facts right, right?" The doctor winked, and Rai groaned in response. Turning back to Kenji, Rai looked on and cleared his throat.
"Rai Luna, of the Choir's Columba ex Charta Department." Rai's voice smoothed into a professional tone.
"You've caused us a lot of headaches doing what you did. My higher ups want questions, and I, unfortunately, am tasked with getting them. Consider this your debriefing notice." Rai said with a sigh.
He turned to leave, walking out the door. But before he left, Rai paused and craned his head to Kenji. "Oh yeah, one more thing. Your brother's pissed — and he wants answers, just to warn you. He'll be joining the questioning."
Kenji felt his throat die. Maybe it would've been better if he did as well. Somehow, that scared him more than the anomaly.
He looked to Rai as he left.
"Wait!" Kenji called out.
Rai paused by the doorway, craning his head again. Rai raised his brow, it was the only reply he would give.
"Just–" He cut himself off, thinking of how to word this. "Why isn't he here?"
His own brother wasn't by his side when he was hospitalized. There was probably a good reason for it, but Kenji's mind wracked at potentials that harmed more than healed.
Did his brother find him a nuisance? Did he cause too much trouble? Was he disappointed? Thoughts that plagued him for long, now resurfacing under the fluorescent glow of the medical wing.
Rai stared for a moment, then sighed. "Your brother's been ordered to stay put and await orders. Relax, Hakurou. He was about to rush into here when you went here. Ametsuchi just needed space to work."
He turned and walked out. Kenji breathed a sigh of relief.