Tokyo, October 16th, 2045 — 2:30 PM
Sakura Senior High School looked normal from the outside. Students ran through the corridors, laughing and chatting about ordinary teenage things. But Ren Takatou knew that normality was nothing more than an illusion.
With the Omniscience Ability that continued to evolve after assimilating Axiom Collective data, he could see energy anomalies in nearly every corner of the school. The parasitic organisms had infiltrated deeper than he expected. And most troubling of all—some of them had already begun infecting humans.
Ren sat in the back seat of the math classroom, appearing to listen to Watanabe-sensei's explanation of integrals, but in reality he was performing a deep scan of everyone in the room.
The results made his blood run cold.
Three students in his class showed signs of early-stage infection. Their DNA structures were beginning to shift, their nervous systems slowly being overtaken by the alien organism. Within 48 hours, they would lose their sense of self and become puppets controlled by the Axiom Collective.
And one of them was Yuki.
"Nakamura-san," Watanabe-sensei's voice snapped Ren out of his thoughts. "Can you solve this problem?"
Yuki stood up with a slightly stiff motion—something no one else would notice, but painfully obvious to Ren's evolved perception. She walked to the board with steps that were too regular… too mechanical.
When Yuki began writing, Ren saw something that nearly made him lose control. Beneath the skin on her neck, he could see thin blackish strands spreading like plant roots. The parasite had already reached her central nervous system.
Subspecies: Puppeteer Type-9, information flowed through Ren's mind.
Airborne infection through contaminated atmosphere. Incubation stage: 72 hours.
Once full control is achieved, the host becomes a direct extension of Axiom Collective consciousness.
Ren clenched his fist so tightly his knuckles turned white. He had already failed to protect the person he cared about most.
Yuki solved the math problem perfectly—too perfectly. Her speed and accuracy surpassed what any normal high school student should be capable of. Watanabe-sensei praised her, unaware that he wasn't praising his student anymore…
…but an alien intelligence that had begun to take over her body.
The break bell rang. Students began leaving the classroom, but Ren remained seated. He needed time to think, to plan his next move carefully.
"Ren-kun?" Yuki approached him. Her voice still sounded normal, but something about her intonation was different—slightly flatter, with less emotion. "You're not going to break?"
Ren lifted his head, staring into her eyes. Eyes that used to radiate warmth now looked faintly empty, as if something was peering out from behind her brown irises.
"I'm fine," Ren replied, forcing his voice to stay steady. "Just a little tired."
Yuki tilted her head in a strange way.
"Tired? But last night you looked very… energetic."
An alarm rang inside Ren's mind. Yuki shouldn't know anything about what he did last night.
Unless…
"What do you mean?" Ren asked carefully.
"It's nothing." Yuki smiled—but the smile didn't reach her eyes. "Just a feeling."
She turned and walked out of the classroom, leaving Ren alone with a storm of thoughts. The situation had become more complicated than he expected. The Axiom Collective wasn't just attacking with brute force…
…but with infiltration so subtle it could slip past reality itself.
Ren stood and followed Yuki into the corridor. He needed to confirm how far the infection had spread—and whether there was still a way to save his friends.
School Rooftop — 3:15 PM
Ren stood alone in the same place where his conversation with Yuki had started yesterday. The afternoon wind blew hard, carrying a strange scent that hadn't existed before—a mix of metal and something organic… but unnatural.
He wasn't alone for long.
"I knew you would come here."
Ren turned. Yuki stood in the rooftop doorway, her gaze different from usual—sharper, colder.
"Yuki-chan," Ren said quietly. "You're still in there, right? Inside your own body?"
Yuki laughed—a sound he had never heard from her before. Too low. Too controlled.
"An interesting question," she said as she walked closer. "And the answer is complex. Yes, Yuki Nakamura is still here. But she is no longer alone."
Ren stepped back.
"The Axiom Collective."
"Ah, so you already know." Yuki's expression shifted into something completely foreign. "We are very impressed with your adaptability, Ren Takatou. Eliminating our command unit last night was an extraordinary achievement."
"Let her go," Ren said, his voice trembling with anger. "Yuki has nothing to do with this."
"Nothing to do with this?" Yuki—or whatever controlled her—tilted her head. "She is your most effective leverage. We have analyzed your behavioral patterns. Your emotional attachment to this specimen is extremely high."
Ren's fist tightened.
"If you hurt her—"
"What will you do?" Yuki cut him off. "Kill us? Like you did the other units?"
Suddenly, Yuki's body began to change. Her smooth pale skin turned even paler, shimmering faintly like metal. Her eyes shifted into a glowing violet. And from her back, something began to grow—wings, but made of unknown organic material.
"This is Subspecies: Hybrid Type-1," the voice coming from Yuki's mouth now sounded like a harmony of multiple voices. "A combination of biological host and high-level Axiom Collective technology. We created it specifically for you."
Ren felt his Absolute Adaptive ability activate automatically, analyzing the new threat and preparing the optimal response.
But something held him back.
He couldn't attack a creature using Yuki's body.
"We know you will not harm this host," Hybrid-Yuki smiled with something horrifying. "That is your weakness, Ren Takatou. You are still bound by primitive human emotions."
"Emotions aren't weakness," Ren replied. "Emotions are what make us strong."
"Strong?" Hybrid-Yuki laughed. "Emotions make you predictable. Easy to manipulate. And in the end, emotions will destroy you."
The creature raised its hand, and Ren saw Yuki's fingers transform into claws—diamond-hard, gleaming with lethal sharpness.
The attack came with unbelievable speed. Ren barely managed to dodge as the claws sliced through the air where his head had been a moment earlier. A thin line opened on his cheek, and a strange burning sensation flared.
Bio-engineered toxin, his Omniscience Ability analyzed instantly.
Designed specifically to penetrate evolved defense systems.
But Absolute Adaptive worked faster.
Within seconds, Ren's immune system evolved to neutralize the poison. The cut on his cheek healed at a speed visible to the naked eye.
"Impressive," Hybrid-Yuki said. "But how long can you keep adapting without striking back?"
The second attack came—a combination of claws and an energy blast fired from her organic wings. Ren dodged with movements no normal human should be capable of, his body flowing with a fluidity that defied physics.
But he still didn't strike back.
"Why aren't you fighting?" Hybrid-Yuki continued attacking with increasingly complex combinations. "What is the point of power you refuse to use?"
"Because I won't hurt Yuki," Ren said as he kept dodging. "There has to be another way."
"There is no other way!" Hybrid-Yuki screamed. "This host is already part of us! The only way to stop us is to destroy this vessel!"
Ren stopped dodging.
He stood tall in the center of the rooftop, staring at the creature wearing Yuki's face with unwavering resolve.
"Then," he said calmly, "I'll prove you wrong."
Ren closed his eyes and activated Omniscience Ability at a level he had never attempted before. He didn't just observe Hybrid-Yuki's physical structure—
He tried to understand the interaction between the alien consciousness and the human consciousness inside her body.
And he found it.
Yuki was still there.
Her awareness was trapped in a small corner of her own brain, isolated by the alien neural network. But she was still fighting… still trying to resist.
"Yuki," Ren said softly. "I know you can hear me."
Hybrid-Yuki stopped attacking.
"Impossible. The host is fully integrated."
"Yuki, remember our conversation yesterday on this rooftop," Ren continued, ignoring the alien's protest. "You asked what I would do if the world was going to end in two months."
Something flickered in Hybrid-Yuki's eyes—brief, but Ren caught it.
"I said I would spend time with the people I love," Ren stepped forward slowly. "And do things I've always been too afraid to do."
"Stop!" Hybrid-Yuki backed away. "You can't—"
"One of the things I was too afraid to do," Ren kept walking forward, "was telling you how I really feel."
Hybrid-Yuki's eyes widened. The flicker returned—longer this time.
"I love you, Yuki," Ren said clearly, firmly. "And I won't let them take you from me."
And then something happened that had never occurred in Axiom Collective history.
The host rejected.
Hybrid-Yuki's body trembled violently. Strange sounds poured from her mouth—half screams of pain, half electronic interference. The organic wings on her back began to wilt and crumble.
"That's impossible…" the alien voice inside her weakened. "The host should not be able to… emotional override should not be…"
"You underestimated the power of human emotion," Ren said as he reached out his hand. "And you underestimated Yuki."
Yuki's eyes blinked. The glowing violet slowly faded, replaced by the warm brown Ren knew. And when her mouth opened, the voice that came out was truly Yuki's.
"Ren… kun?" Her voice was weak and confused. "What… happened to me?"
But before Ren could answer, something else happened.
The rejected alien neural system didn't disappear.
It regrouped, merged, and formed something new—an independent entity that burst out of Yuki's body as a moving mass of organic matter.
Subspecies: Emergency Type-0, Ren's Omniscience Ability identified immediately.
Backup form activated when host rejection occurs. Extremely dangerous and unpredictable.
The mass quickly shaped itself into a tall, thin humanoid form, with skin like liquid metal and eyes blazing with blinding violet light.
"Impressive," the creature said, its voice echoing like sound in an empty void. "This human specimen possesses willpower beyond normal parameters. But this only delays the inevitable."
Yuki collapsed behind Ren, her body weak after the traumatic rejection. Ren stepped forward, placing himself between her and the alien entity.
"The game is over," Emergency Type-0 raised its hand. Violet energy gathered in its palm. "Time for total elimination."
But Ren smiled.
"A game?" he said, feeling a new power surge through his body. "We're just getting started."
For the first time since gaining his abilities, Ren felt something different within Absolute Adaptive.
Not just adaptation against physical threats…
…but adaptation against the emotional threat he had just endured.
He had evolved again.
And this time, his evolution wasn't triggered by the need to survive—
But by the need to protect someone he loved.
"Yuki," he said without turning around. "Close your eyes."
The energy blast from Emergency Type-0 fired toward them with enough force to destroy the entire building.
But Ren didn't dodge.
Instead…
He absorbed it.
The violet energy poured into his body, and then he reflected it back with multiplied power. Not only reflected—
He altered the energy frequency into something toxic to Axiom Collective biological structures.
Emergency Type-0 didn't have time to react.
Ren's reflected energy struck it directly in the chest, carving a hole straight through its body from front to back.
The creature stared at the hole with disbelief, then collapsed into liquid metal that slowly evaporated.
Silence fell over the rooftop.
Ren turned and saw Yuki sitting on the ground, staring at him with wide, shocked eyes.
"Ren-kun…" she whispered. "What… what did you just do?"
Ren crouched beside her, checking her condition with Omniscience Ability.
No trace of the alien organism remained inside her.
The rejection had succeeded completely.
"What I had to do," Ren said, helping her up. "Protect the person I love."
Yuki looked at him with a complicated expression—fear, confusion, and something else.
Something warm.
"Ren-kun…" she said softly. "I… I also—"
But before she could finish, Ren's phone rang.
Not a normal call.
An emergency alert he had programmed to detect high-level Axiom Collective activity.
He checked the screen, and his expression immediately turned serious.
47 locations across Tokyo showed massive energy spikes.
The Axiom Collective mothership hiding in orbit had begun moving.
And worst of all—
They detected signs that the invasion timeline had accelerated again.
Not 12 days.
But 3 days.
"Ren-kun?" Yuki noticed his expression shift. "What is it?"
Ren looked at her.
The girl he had just saved from alien control. The girl who had heard his confession. The girl who now knew he possessed power beyond human limits.
It was time to reveal everything.
"Yuki," he said seriously. "I need to tell you something. About me, about what's happening to this world, and why all of us are in grave danger."
Yuki nodded, though her face was still pale.
"I'm listening."
And under the fading afternoon sun, Ren Takatou began to tell the truth he had carried alone for so long.
The truth about an alien invasion that would wipe out humanity in three days.
The truth about the supernatural abilities he possessed.
And the truth about the war he would have to fight—with or without anyone's help.
The revelation had begun.
And with it, a new phase of the battle against the Axiom Collective began.