The monstrous Soul Reaper's eyes were locked onto Nitsuki and Sami. It was a predator sighting its final two targets. The creature began its charge, demonstrating a truly terrifying velocity. The distance between the survivors and the monster was approximately twenty meters, and within a single, terrifying second, the creature had already devoured eighteen of those meters. It was a blur of grotesque motion, lunging, its massive jaws ready to consume their souls and crush their bodies.
In that impossible instant—the very precipice of death—a blur of even greater speed intervened.
A figure, moving with velocity that defied human comprehension, suddenly appeared between the teenagers and the monster. It was not merely fast; it was an apparition of focused kinetic energy. The figure delivered a ferocious, concussive kick directly into the creature's dense side. The force was catastrophic; the immense monster, which moments earlier had radiated total invulnerability, was sent hurtling violently through the air, crashing into a distant pile of rubble with a sound like grinding thunder.
Nitsuki and Sami stood paralyzed, their terror momentarily replaced by sheer disbelief. The impossible action had saved them.
"What was that?" Nitsuki demanded, his voice thin and shaky, staring at the spot where the savior had appeared.
Sami was equally stunned, her eyes darting to track the blur. "I don't know, either! It was so fast that I couldn't see anything but a flash!"
"Same..." Nitsuki murmured, then squinted, trying to focus on the person now walking toward them through the dust and haze kicked up by the crash. "Wait... is his hair... yellow?" The color was vibrant, almost glowing.
As the figure approached, the details solidified: the impossible speed, the determined yet familiar features, and the distinct, unnaturally brilliant yellow hair. It was Takashi Yamazaki.
A surge of relief, so potent it threatened to overwhelm her, struck Sami. She ran forward, tears instantly welling up. "Takashi! You are alive! I am so glad!" She threw her arms around him in a desperate, grateful hug.
Takashi, despite his new aura of power, accepted the hug with familiar, albeit slightly stiff, warmth. "Yes, I am," he confirmed.
Nitsuki walked over, a genuine, profound smile finally breaking through his grief and terror. "Thank god," he breathed, the weight of his fear for his friend lifting.
The brief reunion was violently cut short. The first monster, though severely damaged, scrambled back onto its feet. With a guttural shriek of fury, it leaped high into the air, renewing its charge toward the group.
Just as the monster began its second descent, a second figure appeared, perched high on the crest of a ruined skyscraper section. This individual was focused, his body crackling with visible energy. A brilliant, powerful bolt of thunder erupted from his outstretched hand, streaking across the air and striking the descending monster mid-flight. The electric force was immense, instantly burning the creature, which exploded into pieces of smoking debris before its remains could impact the ground. It was annihilated.
Everyone stared, eyes wide with astonishment at the display of raw, elemental power.
The new person walked forward, descending from the ruins with a casual adjustment of his attire. "Ah, maybe I killed him too brutally," he remarked, his tone strangely relaxed given the magnitude of the power he had just wielded.
Takashi sighed, a sound of weary familiarity. "Yes, brutally, Kento."
"Ah, my bad!" Kento replied with a sheepish, easy grin.
Sami looked at Takashi, bewildered. "You know him, Takashi?"
"Yeah, I recently met him," Takashi confirmed, his eyes darting to Nitsuki, sensing the torrent of analytic questions brewing in his friend's mind.
Nitsuki, despite his fear, was unable to suppress his intellectual curiosity. "Hey! How were you so fast, and how did Kento do that? How did he manage to manipulate thunder?" he asked, his voice calmer now, the need for answers paramount.
Takashi knew the explanation was complex and required safety. "It's... a long story. Before that, let's get to a safe place."
(The Underground Sanctuary)
The group moved quickly, Takashi leading them expertly through the shattered cityscape. He brought them to a heavily damaged area, stopping beside a broken building. Hidden beneath some debris was a subtle secret trapdoor he had discovered earlier.
Takashi opened the trapdoor, revealing a crude, subterranean space below. "Everyone, down inside!"
They climbed down into the confined space, the trapdoor closing over them, sealing them away from the chaos above. The silence was immediate and profound, a welcome balm.
"How did you find this, Takashi?" Nitsuki asked, looking around the small, windowless space.
"When I escaped the school, I was running aimlessly," Takashi explained. "While I was moving carefully, observing the creatures, I discovered this place. I just took a quick look inside to mark its location and then ran off again."
Kento, examining the rough stone walls and dirt floor, commented: "This place looks like it was someone's secret house, maybe an old bunker. Definitely not a public utility."
With the immediate threat neutralized, the four sat down. Takashi realized that delaying the explanation was pointless; the powers they possessed and the events they had witnessed demanded full disclosure. He began telling the incredible story of his isolated journey, his encounter with the mysterious object, and the strange, sudden arrival of Kento.
(Takashi's Flashback: The Power Awakening)
Takashi recounted his desperate flight from the school. He had been driven by logic and a fierce will to survive, running aimlessly yet carefully observing the new, terrifying landscape.
"Why does this seem so familiar?" he had wondered, observing the Soul Reapers flying through the bruised sky. "The appearance... the speed... the power..."
Suddenly, the realization had struck him, a profound convergence of fiction and reality. "Yeahh, I got it!" he had muttered to himself. "They look exactly like the Soul Reapers that were mentioned in that Soul Apocalypse book! But why are they here? Did they just materialize from the pages?" The confusion was immense, but the intellectual link was solid.
Driven by the need to understand, Takashi had focused his escape toward the impact site—the heart of the mystery. "I should go to that place where it fell."
He had reached the jungle and plunged through the thick, shattered treeline. Ahead, he had seen the object: a colossal, perfectly round, stone-like sphere. Its surface was veined with glowing lines of black and blue energy, pulsing faintly, an object of pure, alien power.
"What is that?" Takashi thought, immediately calculating its impossible mass. "It's like a huge, glowing meteorite."
As he approached, he spotted the other figure, Kento, walking toward the sphere from another direction.
"Hey. Who are you?" Takashi had called out.
Kento had stopped, relief evident on his face. "Oh, so there is another person like me! Do you know what's happening right now with this world?"
"No, I don't," Takashi replied, moving closer. "But I know it is something really bad."
"I also know that," Kento confirmed. "By the way, I am Kento... Kento Haruno."
"I am Takashi Yamazaki. So, let's check what that thing is."
Kento stared at the massive sphere. "Yeah, it's really huge as hell! Should we touch it?"
Takashi's intellectual curiosity won out over caution. "I need to know about this thing. So, I am going to touch it."
"I'll do it also," Kento agreed.
They both reached out and placed a hand on the huge, alien stone. It felt warm and hard, yet nothing immediately happened.
"It's warm and hard!" Kento noted.
"Yeah. Maybe we should break it or..."
Before he could finish, a small, geometrically perfect hole opened on the sphere's surface. From this aperture, two brilliant yellow streaks of light , pure, concentrated energy, shot out. The lines swirled rapidly around Takashi and Kento, then instantly merged into their heads, like spirits entering their bodies. The feeling was overwhelming, an infusion of impossible power that caused both young men to lose consciousness instantly.
They awoke about ten minutes later, filled with a profound, vibrant energy.
"What were those lines? And why am I feeling so energetic?" Kento wondered, flexing his hands, noticing a surge of vitality.
"Same here!" Takashi confirmed. "I am also feeling something like that—a huge influx of physical capacity."
At that precise moment, two transparent, glowing digital displays appeared floating in front of them, like messages projected into the air.
In front of Takashi, the card read:
"Congratulations! You have achieved a unique Phore — Master in Speed and strenght."
In front of Kento, the card read:
"Congratulations! You have achieved a unique Phore — Thunder Manipulation."
Kento stared at the impossible text, his jaw slack. "Now what is this sh*t? Phore? I don't believe in all of these things! But these are happening."
He decided to test the impossible. He raised his hand, focused the intense energy now thrumming beneath his skin, and struck vertically toward a tree in front of him, visualizing lightning. A blinding, focused bolt of electricity erupted from his hand and shattered the tree.
Takashi, witnessing the impossible elemental power, could only breathe a single word. "Phore...!"