.
.
.
.
[The surveillance room, under kagetsu castle]
[Earlier before the fight.]
The hum of machinary and busy voices of staff filled the dimly lit surveillance room. Rows of monitors cast a cold glow over the seated personnel, their screens divided into countless live feeds from across the castle grounds.
Ring. Ring.
A woman seated at the central console clicked the flashing notification on her handheld device, connecting to the incoming call.
"Hello... Yes, sir... Understood. I'll inform them immediately."
The call ended with a soft chime.
She sighed, stretching her fingers before quickly navigating the interface. Her next task was to contact the experimental division, where the captives were housed.
The line rang. Once. Twice.
Her foot tapped idly against the floor as she waited for half a second. Why aren't they picking up?
She exhaled sharply, ending the call before redialing. Still, no answer.
Frowning, she pulled up the live surveillance feed of the division's sector. The screen flickered as the cameras switched views, displaying the sterile hallways lined with reinforced doors.
Then—
Her stomach plummeted.
Blood.
The pristine corridors were now a grotesque display of carnage. Limbs, torsos, and sliced remains lay strewn across the floor, pooling in thick, dark puddles. Some bodies had been ripped apart, organs spilling from gaping cavities. Others had been severed cleanly, as though carved by an impossibly sharp blade.
Her breath hitched. Her pulse pounded in her ears. 'What... What happened?!'
Heart racing, she pushed back from the desk, intending to warn the others "Report!—"
She froze.
The room was silent.
Too silent.
She turned and her eyes darted around the space, and that's when she saw it.
Every single person in the surveillance room was dead.
Some remained upright in their chairs, heads missing, hands still poised as if they hadn't realized they were already gone. Others were slumped over consoles, torsos split open, revealing the mess of organs beneath. A few had collapsed onto the floor, their limbs scattered separately from their bodies.
'When? How?'
A chill ran down her spine. The realization came crashing down—she hadn't heard anything. No gunfire, no screams, not even the faintest shuffle of movement.
Her lips parted in horror, but before she could even process her next thought—
Her vision tilted.
The room spun as her line of sight inexplicably dropped.
Her own body remained standing before her, motionless.
Her lips twitched, but her voice never came. Her own head—detached from her body—was rolling. She felt her perspective shift, tumbling across the cold floor, her limbs following in rapid succession.
She was dead before she even realized it.
As the last traces of awareness faded, the only sound left in the surveillance room was the soft, rhythmic ringing of the telecom devices.
.
.
[Department of Experimental sciences.]
[Room #16]
+ Toru's POV +
'Just a little more...'
Toru crouched beside the cold metal table, his transparent fingers gliding over the near-invisible wire looped around the captive's steel collar. The filament, razor-thin yet impossibly strong, gleamed faintly under the sterile fluorescence of the lab's dim overhead lights.
His form remained unseen, a phantom operating in silence. His mind calculated each precise movement, ensuring nothing would go wrong.
'One last adjustment. A minor shift in pressure.'
With a deft pull—
Clink!
The collar split apart seamlessly, the severed metal clattering onto the table with a soft metallic rattle.
Akemi stirred. A sharp inhale cut through the silence as she jolted upright, her hand instinctively flying to her throat. Her fingers brushed against the bare skin where the restrictive collar had been moments ago, her breathing ragged as disorientation clouded her thoughts.
Toru observed her reaction. 'It's good that she was awake during it all.'
Her gaze darted around the dimly lit lab, trying to make sense of the eerie quiet and the absence of her captors. Then, her attention landed on the far wall.
Upon Toru's command, a message flickered on the wall, the strands he set up beforehand forming words:
"Follow the blue string to meet up with your brother, then follow the red strings to group up with denji. Do not deviate. -Toru"
Beneath the message, an arrow of blue strings stretched toward the open exit. The once-secured steel door now lay flat on the ground, its hinges cut open from an unseen force.
Akemi hesitated. Her mind raced, trying to recall how she ended up here, how long she had been unconscious. But with no clear answers and no time to dwell, she made a decision. She clenched her fists, and chose to trust the message.
Adjusting the loose white garments she had been dressed in, she slid off the table, landing lightly on her bare feet. Without another glance back, she followed the glowing path.
Seeing as his message was acknowledged, Toru with his phantom-like form slipped through the walls. 'Two down. One more to go.'
He contemplated. Then he felt a subtle shiver pulse through one of his distant threads.
'Another one just tripped a line in the surveillance wing... but late.'
He drifted forward, silent as breath.
'Strange. I expected them all to be dead simultaneously. A lapse in calculation?'
Toru didn't berate himself, but he logged the misstep.
He moved deeper into the maze-like interior, his incorporeal body threading past humming pipes and dim emergency lights that flickered above.
'Once I free the new guy, I'll free his pet. Although they contained it levels below where the three were kept. I'm not sure if I should free it now...' He huffed silently. 'We can come for it after we got them back in the market, hopefully that Denji guy would understand.'
Toru phased through a wall 'On second thought, it might not be a great idea. Reinforcement may arrive and try to salvage whats left of here. I'll think about it once I free Denji.'
He hovered in a dim, lower hallway lined with reinforced cell doors. His thoughts shifted, eyeing the locked room ahead.
'Here,'
His thoughts briefly paused.
'Based on what Kazuhiro said, I can afford to be a little rough with him. His world deals with demons. That kind of exposure builds durability… probably.'
His phantom-like silhouette hovered just outside the containment room. Phantom like threads moved from his fingertips. He sets one of them around the hinges, willing it cut open an exit.
Though he suddenly froze.
He felt a pulse along one of his distant threads.
Not from the surveillance room this time. No. This signal came from deeper, farther. In a section of the building he deliberately wanted to avoid till they were done with the rescue mission.
That room.
Toru's hand tightened slightly, his fingers curling inward.
'I didn't feel it cut all the way through.' He frowned,
Toru remembered the sight he had caught earlier when he tried to set up that room with strings. In that room a man, who seemed very composed, though something about him felt… off.
Unnatural.
His phantom form quivered slightly.
'How... ' He furrowed his brows 'I made sure to make the silk as thin as posibble to noy be seen yet... it didn't cut him all the way through. More so only grazed him.'
With hurried hands and slight panic he continued to work on the door 'I had a feeling something was off about him. I need to get this over with now.'
He adjusted the angle of the string adding more pressure.
'One and a half minutes is all I need to get him out'
Toru's next thought came with a trace of dry regret.
'Apologies in advance… for any injuries you'll get.'
With that, the string around the door vibrated once—and sliced.
.
.
[Department Center]
Akemi moved swiftly, her breath steady but her heart pounding. The dim hallways seemed to stretch longer, but she followed Toru's directions, never deviating.
Upon reaching the designated meeting point, she halted.
"Asahi…?"
Her twin brother stood leaning against the wall, his silhouette barely illuminated by the emergency lights flickering overhead. Relief momentarily softened her expression before her eyes narrowed in concern.
"You were freed by Toru too…" Her gaze drifted lower. His hand was loosely gripping his throat, his fingers stained red.
Her stomach dropped. "What happened?"
She rushed forward, her hands hovering near his neck, searching for any serious wounds.
Asahi gave a sheepish chuckle, rubbing the back of his head with his free hand. "Ah… nothing serious. Just an itch."
Akemi's brow twitched. "An itch?"
"Toru's strings dug in a little when he tried to free me, and, well… I scratched too hard." He gestured vaguely, as if that somehow excused it.
Akemi smacked him upside the head.
"You idiot! You could get an infection!"
Asahi winced, recoiling slightly. "Ow! Geez! It's just a little scratch!"
"It's not just a scratch! You need to stop being so careless, Asahi!"
Akemi exhaled sharply, regaining her composure. "Look, we don't have time for this. We need to move. Toru said we have to regroup with Denji."
Asahi sighed, nodding. "Yeah, you're right… but man, I feel kinda bad, y'know?"
Akemi gave him a look. "For what?"
"For making them come all the way here to rescue us. First Toru, now maybe even Kazu-san too… It kinda feels like we're just dead weight."
Her expression hardened. "Not the time, Asahi." Her voice was firm, "You can thank them or apologize later. Right now, we need to focus on getting out of here."
Asahi hesitated for a beat before exhaling, rolling his shoulders back.
"R-right… Let's go."
Without another word, the twins sprinted toward their next destination.
.
.
[Containment room #45]
Toru in his phantom from stood deadpanned at the scene in front of 'I should've expected this…' he thought flatly, watching as Denji sat cross-legged on the floor, grinning childishly while cuddling Pochita like a beloved stuffed toy. The small devil wagged its tongue happily, nuzzling into his chest without a care in the world.
It was obliterated—shattered inward with brutal force. Jagged metal bent like paper, the reinforced structure torn clean through as if cleaved by raw violence.
he sighed internally. 'Atleast time was saved.'
He turned from the scene, moving soundlessly as he phased toward the outer wall of the room.
'The two should be here any second now.'
He paused just short of the surface,
'Should I carve out an underground tunnel to where my body is stationed… no. That'd take too long. Less risk, but it would require too much work to remove the dirt and all. Not to mention it would require my physical body to get it done'
'Check for any underground manmade exit? No, risky aswell, that man is aware about my traps, and has or will send reinforcement to check on the captives,'
He tensed,
'Which means the only viable route… is up. I'll have to force an exit from the side in the ground level.'
His mind ticked through probabilities as if sifting through gears in motion. The upper floors had been cleared—most of those stationed there now lay cold and butchered thanks to his work—but the danger wasn't gone. Not yet.
'Even though I took out all of those stationed up top, doesn't mean it would be easy to get them out and back in the market. We might get ambushed in the forest at any moment. I should prepare a set traps around the forest trail, I need to do it quick.'
He remained still for a few seconds longer, evaluating, calculating.
With a frustrated sigh, he began to move. 'Time and luck is what I need for this to succeed.' His decision had been made.
He floated upward through the foundation, preparing to breach into the surface-level corridor.
.
.
[Kagetsu Castle, The Courtyard]
The courtyard lay in eerie stillness, a grotesque tableau of violence now quieted. Shattered stone crunched beneath Kazuhiro's feet as he stood among the remains—twisted limbs, shattered skulls, entrails still steaming against the cool night air. Blood clung to the ridges of his clawed hands and dotted his pine-green apron in chaotic sprays. The scent of iron choked the atmosphere, thick and metallic.
The only sound breaking the silence came from the faint static of comms left unattended, the broken devices crackling weakly beside their fallen owners. Kazuhiro paid them no mind. His hand moved into his pocket. He withdrew his device, intending to send a message but stopped himself.
'Judging by his current task, I doubt he'd respond now.'
The screen dimmed awaiting for any input only for his head to turn elsewhere.
Above, the sky began to grumble. Thunder rolled in the far-off distance, a faint tremor underfoot following in its wake. Lightning slashed briefly across the clouds. It wouldn't be long before the rain came. Kazuhiro tilted his faceless head slightly to observe it.
'It's best to leave soon, to move around would cause quite a challenge.'
He looked back at his screen.
'I should check the progress through the camera feature. Are they still within?'
He barely had time to tap again when it happened.
BOOM.
A sharp, concussive blast cracked through the courtyardm not close enough to strike him, but enough for a odd gust of wind to whip and stir the debris around his legs. His clawed fingers snapped the device shut, sliding it into his pocket.
The explosion had come from the side of the castle, not the main hall. Stone and plaster belched into the sky as a chunk of the outer wall gave way. Dust and debris clouded the entrance, casting the breach in thick shadow.
Kazuhiro's head shifted to a figure dropping down from the broken ledge of the breach. It landed with a heavy but controlled thud. The newcomer first appeared as a silhouette as they wrapped in dust. But with each slow, deliberate step forward, the haze peeled back to reveal his form—broad-shouldered, clad in tailored black robes with a long, layered haori that suggested formality
Kazuhiro didn't move. He needed a clearer view. His observations was suddenly met with a loud siren from his pocket. Reached slowly into his pockets and retrieved his device, tilting it so the screen was in view and never strayed far from the figure.
.
.
Xxxx
WARNING A MAJOR THREAT IS APPROACHING!
Xxxx
.
.
He tapped to expand the notification—but a voice rang out across the courtyard, cutting through the storm-wrought air like a blade.
"How strange," the man said, his voice calm but echoing through the stillness. "You seem focused on an object while a potential enemy stands before you. Distracted already?"
Kazuhiro's head tilted slightly, but didn't respond.
The man came into full view now, standing just around 15 to 25 meters in range.
He looked to be in his early 40s, but something about his presence betrayed that appearance—an unnatural grace to his steps, a chill behind the stillness in his eyes. A long, pale scar ran across his forehead and above his right brow like a drawn slash frozen mid-cut.
His right hand rested lightly on the hilt of a sheathed katana. The blade had not been drawn—yet the pressure it cast into the air was undeniable.
"Our father sees value in you," His tone remained even. Unbothered. As if the battlefield of corpses meant nothing. Kazuhiro subtly adjusted his posture in case of any sudden actions, as the man noticed making him gently exahle.
"It would be wise," he added, "not to resist. It will save you the bother… and save me the time." The man had his hand wrapped around the hilt of his sword.
Kazuhiro's claws twitched, just slightly.
The device in his hand blinked.
.
.
xxxx
A new threat has been detected!
• THE 8TH (TAKESHI HANAMURA).
A BOSS BATTLE HAS BEEN INITIATED.
Objective(s):
Find a way to escape along with your workers
Reward(s):
︎▪︎ 15 (STA)
︎▪︎ 15 (INT)
︎▪︎ 15 (AGI)
︎▪︎ 15 (AP)
︎▪︎ A new Title
.
Failure:
︎ ▪︎ Possibility of Death
︎ ▪︎ Possibility of Akemi's Death
▪︎ Possibility of Asahi's Death
▪︎ Possibility of Denji's Death
▪︎ Possibility of Toru's Death
︎ ▪︎ -25000 SC
.
Alternative(s):
Eliminate the threat, with your workers being alive.
Reward(s):
︎▪︎ 25 (AP)
︎▪︎ 25 (INT)
︎▪︎ 25 (STA)
︎▪︎ 25 (STR)
︎▪︎ 30000 SC
︎▪︎ A new title
︎▪︎ A new ability
.
Failure:
︎▪︎ Possibility of Death
▪︎ Possibility of Akemi's Death
▪︎ Possibility of Asahi's Death
▪︎ Possibility of Denji's Death
▪︎ Possibility of Toru's Death
.
Warning: This Mission has automatically been accepted. Choose between the two objectives to complete it.
Xxxx
.
.
.
.