Rain. Blood. His father's body suspended, impaled by iron rods.
Taiju Kanzaki was still conscious.
Eyes fixed on him.
Breathing failing.
"Kid… It's not—"
The scene froze.
Shattered.
And then—
Shugen jolted upright.
His body reacted before his mind could catch up. His breathing was uneven, his heart racing as if he were still in that ruined battlefield. His eyes were wide, soaked with tears that streamed uncontrollably down his face.
He brought his hands to his face, pressing hard, as if trying to crush the memory itself.
"Damn it…" His voice came out hoarse, heavy. His expression twisted, consumed by fury and hatred that hadn't faded with time—only deepened. "I'm going to kill the bastard who did this!"
The silence around him clashed with the chaos inside.
His eyes, once ordinary black, were now different. A dull, matte black—like a void that reflected no light at all. Since Taiju Kanzaki's death, whatever spark had once lived in them had been extinguished.
"Ahhhh…"
The exhale came out long and heavy, as if he were trying to expel something that simply couldn't be removed.
Shugen slowly rose from the ground. Beneath him, only a worn plastic sheet served as both an improvised bed and blanket. The environment was cold, simple—far removed from any luxury he had once known.
After getting up, he left the place where he had spent the night. He had been there for some time, driven by a relentless search for any clue about the one responsible. In the end, the abandoned building had only served as temporary shelter—a place to sleep, to exist, and to keep going.
But sleep wasn't really what happened.
Nightmares filled his mind every time he tried to close his eyes. And when he did manage to, he was dragged back to that night.
The rain.
The blood.
Taiju Kanzaki's gaze.
Everything repeated.
Again.
And again.
And again.
A cycle without end.
Simply… an endless nightmare.
When he stepped out onto the street, there was no clear destination. His steps carried him forward out of motion alone, not purpose. Even though he wanted to find the one responsible for destroying his only anchor, it was meaningless without any starting point.
'Maybe I should go into the underworld…' he thought, instinctively weaving through the flow of people. 'But if I start looking there… I'll draw attention.'
He frowned slightly.
There was something.
A sensation.
A strange perception that surfaced from time to time—like an instinct beyond normal. Part of his own Quirk… but inconsistent.
'This perception is annoying… and this Quirk is a pain to understand.'
He let out a quiet sigh as he kept walking. At some point, he completely veered away from the crowd and entered a narrow alley. Without hesitation, he bent his body and leapt, reaching the top of a building with ease.
The hood concealed his face entirely.
Up there, far from the immediate noise of the streets, Shugen closed his eyes.
And focused.
On his Quirk.
Bio-Energy.
In simple terms, it was an extremely complex ability. It was based on the production, amplification, and channeling of the life energy generated by his own body. His organism functioned as a complete energy system—though invisible to the naked eye.
A living reactor.
That's how he described it.
But even a reactor had limits.
Large outputs required recovery. The more energy he externalized, the more his body suffered. The constant use of the Bio-Field—responsible for amplifying his physical capabilities to the extreme, redistributing impact, and enabling the formation of his slashes—pushed his body to its limit.
First came overheating, generating excessive heat.
Then overload, where certain abilities began to fail intermittently.
And eventually, total failure.
If he crossed a certain threshold, his body would simply "short-circuit," leaving him unable to access any ability tied to the Bio-Field.
However, there was a reason for that.
The Bio-Field itself wasn't technically part of his Quirk.
Shugen merely had the ability to generate and channel energy, using his blood vessels and nervous system as transmission pathways. Everything else was something he had developed on his own.
By studying biology, he had discovered the concept of the human biofield—a network composed of magnetic fields and photons that surrounds and permeates the body, regulating vital functions.
Then he did something no one had ever taught him.
He made his energy flow through that field.
And that changed everything.
By integrating his Bio-Energy with his own biofield, he became capable of externalizing it, shaping it, expanding it beyond the limits of his physical body.
In his theory, that was how energy-based Quirks truly functioned.
But theory wasn't proof.
And so far… he had none.
(Author: Keep this information in mind—it will be extremely important when he awakens his Quirk. And no, this isn't a spoiler—because it's inevitable.)
"Maybe I can externalize it differently—"
Boom!
The entire building trembled beneath his feet. The vibration climbed through the concrete structure, shaking loose small particles of dust that fell around him. Shugen frowned slightly.
Boom!
Another impact.
And another.
Boom!
This time, he looked.
A giant villain was rampaging through the street in retreat, its colossal body crushing cars and cracking the asphalt with every step. It was pure chaos—disorganized, loud… irrelevant.
Shugen cast it a single, dismissive glance.
Then turned his back.
He was leaving.
It wasn't his problem.
But then—
"Daddy!"
The sound cut through everything.
A child, trapped beneath debris, cried out in desperation, their voice breaking between sobs and dust.
Shugen stopped.
His body froze in place.
And suddenly—
That night came back.
Rain.
Blood.
Taiju Kanzaki's gaze.
"Daddy!"
"Shut up…" Shugen muttered, his voice low, almost choking. Around him, the dust began to lift slightly, as if the air itself was being compressed by something unseen.
"Daddy!"
"Shut up…" His fists clenched slowly, fingers trembling as the pressure inside him began to rise.
"DADDY!"
"SHUT THE FUCK UP!"
He turned sharply, the motion loaded with suppressed tension. His arm shot forward toward the giant villain, fingers pointed like a blade about to be released.
『Dismantle!』
Flash!
But it wasn't like before.
Just one cut.
A single slash tore through the air and struck the villain, severing its arm from its body. The limb crashed down with a heavy impact as the giant roared in pain.
Zzzzzzzzz…
Shugen's eyes widened slightly.
Something was wrong.
His body began to release smoke.
At first, faint.
Then thicker.
Fwoosh!
A wave of heat burst from him, distorting the air around his body. The ground beneath his feet trembled from the overload.
"Damn it!" He dropped to his knees, one hand clutching his chest as his breathing faltered for a moment. His entire body felt heavy, unstable, as if his system was collapsing. I didn't… rest enough…
The sleepless nights were finally taking their toll.
Without proper rest, his Bio-Field hadn't fully recovered. The energy that should have flowed under control was now unstable, forcing his body beyond its safe limit.
With excessive heat pouring out of him—
His system… was short-circuiting.
And in that state—
"…Damn it…"
The smoke escaping his body gradually began to lessen, dissipating into the humid air until it vanished completely. The heat still remained, pulsing beneath his skin like dying embers, but it was no longer out of control.
The Bio-Energy still existed within him, flowing through his vessels and nerves like a living internal system. With precision, he began regulating his own body, controlling blood flow and forcibly lowering his internal temperature.
His breathing slowly stabilized, the weight in his chest easing as the excess heat was redistributed throughout his body. It wasn't a full recovery—far from it—but it was enough to keep him standing.
Without the Bio-Field, there was no extreme amplification of his physical capabilities, no impact redistribution, no ability to form his slashes.
Shugen looked toward the giant villain, who was still moving despite losing an arm. In the distance, the child's cries continued to echo—faint, but persistent.
"This is going to be troublesome."