While we were exiting the café Lint was already reaching for his phone in his pocket. His hands shook (a blend of anger, fear and betrayal) as he entered the emergency number.
"National Crime Agency, Special Response. Lint Saito here badge 0781. Code Black. Objective: Akira Kurogane. Armed, merged with an entity Highly dangerous. Transmitting visual now. Deploy your units across all districts in Tokyo. I need satellites, drones, helicopters—everything. This isn't a request. It's a command. Move out!"
He hung up the phone slammed the glass door with force it cracked like a spiderweb and dashed to his matte-black interceptor. Before he even sat down the engine growled to life. The tires shrieked, rubber smoked and the vehicle shot into traffic like a bullet chasing a heartbeat.
With teeth Lint murmured to the vacant passenger seat "Pardon me brother… yet if I don't intervene the lanes will bleed for years to come."
Twenty kilometers distant I pulled Akira into the frame of a built skyscraper—its steel bones exposed concrete still wet, in spots. The night carried a blend of ozone and urban decay odors.
Afterwards the sky split apart.
Five dark helicopters emerged from the clouds, like steel scavengers their searchlights aimed downward transforming rain into shimmering silver spikes. A voice projected from the craft amplified until it shook ribs:
"AKIRA KUROGANE. YOU HAVE TEN SECONDS TO GIVE UP. We WILL SHOOT. THIS IS YOUR SOLE WARNING."
Akira tilted his head upward rain cleansing the blood from his cheek and chuckled—soft, grimy, powerful.
He gazed at me; his eyes shone with a jet- gleam, like obsidian. "Why is your teleport not functioning, Lucifer?"
I leaned in my lips just brushing the rim of his ear my tone gentle but sharp. "Because even the devil plays by rules, sweetheart. One teleport, for each fusion. Ten minutes of bliss. Time's running out—eight minutes remain."
Than showing fear a gradual wicked grin formed on his lips. He walked out into the air the rain drenched his shirt yet every sharp contour of his muscles remained visible and he shouted up at the sky:
After that you get ten minutes to capture a god.
The commander didn't hesitate all. "Open fire, on him."
The initial shot landed—7.62 ripped into Akiras thigh. Blood burst forth, vivid and fresh. Any person would have dropped, wailing in pain.
But Akira didn't even stagger.
He descended, muscles coiling like panthers. He launched.
The leap exceeded capability. Thirty floors down rain cascading off him in torrents. The force from his jump shattered every pane, on the five levels and tore the roof off the structure like a can lid being removed.
With one hand he clutched the helicopter skid.
Metal ripped. The pilot yanked the stick; the helicopter twisted. Too late. Akira swung within as if he commanded gravity itself.
Ten top operatives, inside the cabin were staring at a horror showing their friends face.
Akiras tone dropped to something ravenous. "I granted you ten minutes. Shame that you all are so… delicate."
He raised his hand. All the firearms, in the cabin glowed cherry-red. Vanished, liquefied metal dripping through their fingers. Screams—frenzied primal—were the sole noises audible. The scent of flesh and molten steel was deeply overpowering.
He approached the commander gripping the man's face, as if with gentleness their foreheads nearly touching.
"Watch me " Akira murmured. "I am determined to mend this decaying world.. Anyone who opposes me I will be the first to show a lesson."
His hand darted— fast to catch. A moist snap. The commanders head was severed from his neck. Tumbled across the floor like a fallen melon.
Panic erupted. Three operators dashed through the door to escape him. Thirty floors below. They leapt down.
Akira gripped the helicopter's side, muscles straining, veins standing out like cables, beneath rain-soaked skin. Flipped the entire aircraft atop the roof. It touched down with a smash of flames and contorted steel. Fire erupted, climbing toward the storm and transforming the rain into mist.
He emerged from the flames his shirt missing chest gleaming each stride a vow of devastation.
Additional helicopters arrived—twenty in total—searchlights carving paths, through the haze. Tracers sewed the darkness red.
Akira only had two minutes remaining on my timer.
He sprinted.
Not away—never away. Toward history.
He moved quickly that he was invisible between rooftops his boots shattering concrete. He laughed like a demon, on his honeymoon. Bullets chased him in red streaks but only struck empty air.
On the avenue Lint's vehicle was skidding through the cars, siren silent, hazard lights blinking like a fading pulse. He was sweating profusely; the steering wheel felt very slick in his grip.
He ripped the loudspeaker from its cradle.
"AKIRA! I VOW UPON MY LIFE—CEASE RESISTANCE THIS INSTANT AND NOT A SINGLE BULLET WILL BE FIRED. YOU HAVE MY PROMISE!"
Akira caught the yell. Smiled.. Precisely at that moment the fusion broke—ten minutes were over.
He stumbled, abruptly striking as human abruptly fragile. His leg injury cracked open more; blood drenched him.. He carried on hobbling, grinning despite the agony veering into a tight alleyway crammed with the night market throng.
Lint hit the brakes hard tires squealing abandoned the car in the center of the street. Chased after him.
The pursuit became intimate.
As Akira leaped past the grilled squid stand he grabbed hold of a corroded fire escape. Ascended with a swing. Lint was close on his heels—he managed to trace the route, with nearly matching speed and ruthless precision. They rushed through the city the scourge of competing wolves.
The rain intensified, turning everything into a scene of shimmering neon and exhilaration.
They stood on the rooftop—empty endless sky, five helicopters circling like furious deities, spotlights encircling Akira causing him to nearly vanish in the fierce radiance of their beams.
Lint was gasping for air, gun aimed at him standing fifteen meters distant.
"Akira. It's over."
Akira checked his damaged watch— ten minutes past the recent fusion. He glanced at Lint tears streaming from his eyes and flashed a grin devious, as evil incarnate.
Do you recall playing hide-and-seek during our childhood Lint? You never managed to discover my hiding spot.
He chuckled, tossing his head backward and yelled at the storm:
"LUCIFER!"
The word Lucifer was the one he spoke and it clicked perfectly like a key.
The intensity struck him strongly that the rooftop collapsed. Flames erupting from his body shone brightly ripping through the water into steam. The earth beneath his feet. Radiated a blazing orange light. His eyes flared—burning red—and the very atmosphere, around him howled.
He stretched out his arms his shirt melting off his chest, each muscle, on his body carved by flames the rain evaporating instantly from his warmth.
The voice, no fully human blended with mine was aimed at the sky the city, the trembling crowd:
This day I proclaim battle against your realm. Move away…. Perish, alongside it.
Then, quieter, almost affectionate, to Lint:
"Goodbye, old friend. See you in Hell."
Lints mouth shifted into a sound somewhere, between a growl and a plea. "INSTRUCTION: HALT TELEPORTATION!"
A fresh entity disrupted the air—an emblem strands of icy light lashing out at us.
Akira—no we—pivoted, flames twisting like serpents and spoke with our voices unified as one "Isn't this fallen angel?"
Hellfire burst forth in a ring. The seal shattered like glass struck by a supernova.
Right before the flames devoured all...
We had left.
All that remained was the smell of brimstone and a solitary charred playing card drifting down through the rain—the queen of hearts its edges still aflame.
Lint murmured, "Akira back when we were kids who believed monsters existed only beneath beds. Now one of those monsters carried the scent of the monster, like cologne."
All conversation ceased, leaving the sound of raindrops.
Lucarious looked up at the sky and said in a deep voice, barely audible, " it's fun, fallen Angel."