The air was razor-sharp cold.
Frost clung to the shattered walls. Obi could see his breath fog in front of him, his chest rising and falling with shallow, uneasy gasps. The temperature hadn't dropped from weather—it was presence. Something was here. Something terrifying.
The demon, moments ago snarling and feral, was now hunched low, trembling like a kicked dog. Its one remaining eye widened in pure, animalistic fear.
Obi slowly turned to the man who had just stepped through the broken wall, completely unfazed by the destruction around them.
He was young—early twenties at most—but carried himself like the deadliest man in the room. Short, spiky brown hair tipped in white caught the moonlight. His icy blue eyes glowed faintly, almost unnaturally, under his white hooded jacket. Black sweatpants and a slung duffel bag gave him the look of someone who just stepped out for groceries... not a battlefield.
Aki, still bleeding and bruised, grinned proudly despite his injuries.
Obi glanced sideways. "Uh… Who's Mr. Freeze over here? He show up to help us, or just flex on a demon mid-slaughter?"
Aki gave him a look like he'd just asked if the sky was real. "That's my brother. Reiji Yukimura. One of the lead investigators in Eclipse. He's basically a walking natural disaster. Strongest person I know."
Obi blinked. "That's your brother?!"
"Genetics are a wild thing, I know," Aki said smugly.
Before Obi could process more, Reiji knelt calmly, placing his bag on the cracked floor. The demon shrieked in panic and hurled a concentrated sonic shockwave at him—strong enough to rip through stone. Dust exploded into the air, concealing Reiji completely.
Obi flinched. Aki just watched.
Then… silence.
As the dust settled, Reiji stood exactly where he had been. Not a scratch. In his hand was a sleek black umbrella, fully open, its canopy shielding him from the blast like it was nothing more than a summer breeze.
He let out a long, annoyed sigh. "That sound… incredibly irritating." His tone was calm—bored, almost. "You're disturbing the peace of the night."
He flicked the umbrella just slightly. A click echoed.
A split second later, a sharp blue flash burst from the umbrella's tip—a concentrated bullet of energy that fired like a railgun. It struck the demon dead in the throat.
The reaction was instant.
The demon staggered back, clutching its neck as pale frost raced across its skin. The wound didn't bleed—it froze. Ice spread rapidly from the entry point, cracking across its collarbone and creeping toward its jaw.
Reiji's voice was low, precise. "You've lost your voice now. You won't be disturbing anyone again."
The demon gagged, falling to one knee, panic in its eye. Frost gathered on its lashes.
"I laced the bullet with a concentrated mix of liquid nitrogen and a neural toxin. Paralysis. Cellular freeze. Slow, painful uselessness."
He gripped the umbrella's curved handle and pulled.
The canopy folded back like clockwork, and from within, a long wakizashi slid out with a soft metallic whisper. The steel shimmered in the moonlight, almost humming with energy. His posture shifted. He took a single step forward, one hand outstretched, the blade glinting low at his side.
Obi's breath caught in his throat. Even standing still, Reiji radiated intent—like death incarnate wrapped in silk.
The demon tried to move. It couldn't.
Then, in a blink—
Reiji vanished.
A flash of silver carved through the air.
When he reappeared, he stood behind the demon, blade held loosely in one hand, a wisp of mist trailing from its edge.
The demon didn't move.
Not yet.
---
Everything turned white.
Not a blinding light—more like snow. Soft, silent, endless. The howls of the real world faded away, replaced by stillness.
The demon—no, Daichi—stood in that white void, confused. His hands trembled. He looked down. No claws. No blood. Just flesh. Human again. Whole. Alive.
Then—
"Daichi…"
A voice. Gentle. Familiar.
He turned.
A woman stood in front of him, her silhouette glowing softly against the void. Her long hair flowed like ink through milk, and her eyes shimmered like they were made of springtime. She stepped closer, smiling through tears.
"You remember me now, don't you?" she whispered.
His lips parted. His voice cracked. "...Hanabi?"
She nodded, tears spilling freely. Without hesitation, she took his hand and gently pulled him toward the light growing behind her.
---
The memories hit him like waves.
He was no demon. Just Daichi. A store owner. Ordinary. Struggling—but happy. He saw himself laughing with Hanabi as they fixed a broken light in their tiny apartment. He remembered that day—the best one. The test results. Positive. They were going to be parents.
They danced in the living room that night, broke, but filled with joy.
But then came the other results. Cancer. Terminal. Months to live. Not even enough time to meet his child.
Desperation gnawed at him. He started hearing rumors—of a man who could heal anything, who walked the earth untouched by death. A legend. An immortal.
He searched in back alleys, temples, graveyards—until finally, just before the end, he found him.
A man with no name. The Nameless King.
---
"Do you want to live?" the Nameless King asked. His voice was smooth, like velvet stretched over knives.
Daichi, half-dead and rotting inside, nodded. "I want to see my child born. I want to live. I'll do anything."
The king smiled like someone watching a moth fly into a flame.
"Then become more than human," he said. "Join the next evolution."
---
That night, Daichi returned home... changed.
He walked into the house. Hanabi was humming a lullaby, rubbing her belly.
He didn't remember the next part clearly—only red.
So much red.
Her screams. His claws. The blood. The smell.
By the time he realized what he'd done, her body was limp in his arms, her stomach ripped open. The unborn child… gone. Swallowed. Consumed.
He fell to the floor, shaking, sobbing, covered in everything he had once loved.
---
The Nameless King appeared again—casually, like he was checking in on a pet.
"Why did you stop eating?" he asked.
Daichi looked up, voice broken. "What… what is this? You said I could see them again. You lied."
The king crouched beside him. "Lied?" He chuckled. "I gave you what you asked for. You're alive, aren't you?"
"You made me kill them!" Daichi cried.
The king stood, gripping Daichi by the neck and lifting him into the air like a puppet. His grip tightened until Daichi's vision blurred.
"You mourn for them?" he sneered. "Why? They're livestock. Do you pity a chicken when you fry it? Did you ever cry for a cow before you chewed its flesh?"
Daichi gasped, choking on foam and blood.
"You're not human anymore," the Nameless King growled. "You are a predator. They are your food. Stop crying. Start feeding."
With that, he tossed Daichi aside like trash, vanishing into the shadows.
---
The white void returned.
Hanabi stood in front of him once more, the light behind her beckoning.
He hesitated. "You shouldn't take me. I don't deserve it," he whispered, falling to his knees. "I killed you. I killed our baby."
She knelt in front of him, cupping his face.
"You were lost," she said. "But you found your way back to me. I've waited years. Don't ask me to wait any longer."
His face crumpled. His shoulders shook. He cried—ugly, gasping sobs—and she smiled through hers.
They stood. Their fingers intertwined.
And hand in hand, they walked into the darkness together.
---
Back in the real world, the silence was deafening.
The demon stood frozen in place—motionless, upright—as if something inside him still refused to fall. Thin white lines glimmered across his body, faint and clean like cuts in glass. Then, like a statue shattering under its own guilt, he trembled… and spoke.
"I'm… sorry."
His voice was a whisper, full of regret. A tear slipped down his cheek, trailing over cracked skin.
And then he crumbled.
The checkerboard pattern etched across his body split all at once, collapsing him into scattered pieces. No screams. Just silence and falling ash, like the embers of a burned-out soul.
Reiji stood still, calm as ever. His blade—still glinting faintly with cold light—was lowered to his side. The blood on the edge hissed softly, disintegrating into nothing as if the weapon refused to be stained.
With a soft exhale, Reiji slid the wakizashi back into its sheath—hidden seamlessly within the curved handle of his black umbrella—and turned.
He walked toward the others. Each step was silent but heavy, echoing in Obi's ears like thunder in his chest.
Obi stood frozen, drenched in sweat and blood. He didn't realize how hard he was breathing until the sound of it filled the ruined building. His eyes flicked between the remains of the demon and the man who had just ended him.
That man… Reiji… He didn't just defeat a monster—he erased it.
He'd watched the demon scream, flail, fight desperately—then be silenced in seconds.
And Reiji hadn't even flinched.
Obi swallowed thickly. His thoughts were spiraling.
He's a monster… No. Not like the demon. But something far beyond what Obi understood. Cold. Controlled. Deadly.
Aki, for once, had dropped his usual smugness. But now he grinned, proud.
Aki gave a short nod, clearly enjoying the awe on Obi's face. "One of the strongest. You're lucky he showed up, honestly. We'd be demon chow if he hadn't."
Obi didn't answer. His eyes were locked on the crumbling body, on the expression that had lingered on the demon's face. Regret.
Deep, aching sorrow. Like he was relieved to finally be destroyed.
Obi's heart twisted.
He knew the demon had killed people. Innocents. Left families in pieces. And yet… he couldn't shake the image of those tears.
Why do I feel sorry? he thought. What's wrong with me?
Maybe it was because of Kanou. His sister. A demon now, somewhere out there. Was she crying too? Regretting what she'd done?
Reiji's voice cut through his thoughts like a scalpel.
"Aki," he said coolly, stopping beside them. "You were supposed to wait for me."
Aki raised his hands like a guilty schoolboy. "Hey—don't blame me. He ran in first," he said, jerking his thumb at Obi. "I had to go in to protect him."
Reiji's gaze turned to Obi, sharp and unreadable. "Why?"
Obi hesitated. "I… I heard a woman screaming," he said, his voice low. "I thought someone needed help."
Reiji's eyes didn't soften. If anything, they grew colder.
"What are you doing here at all?"
Obi took a breath. His ribs ached. His arms were shaking.
"Because a demon destroyed my life," he said. "I saw it happen. I watched everything fall apart. I just want to find the one that took everything from me… and make it pay."
Reiji's answer was blunt. "I'm not here to help you with a revenge fantasy."
Obi stepped forward. "Then train me," he said. "Please. I need to get stronger. I can't live like this. I need to fight back."
Reiji tilted his head slightly. "You're bleeding from your shoulder and barely standing. You're probably hallucinating from blood loss."
"That's not—!" Obi started, but he didn't get to finish.
Reiji's hand moved like lightning, chopping cleanly into Obi's neck with a precision strike. His knees buckled, vision already turning black at the edges.
He was going under.
Just before everything went dark, he saw Reiji kneel beside the woman—the one the demon had attacked. She was barely breathing, skin pale as snow. Gently, Reiji lifted her into his arms.
Obi's eyes drifted toward Aki, who looked unusually serious.
"Come on, big bro," Aki said quietly. "He saved my life. The least you can do is help him."
Reiji didn't look back. "It's not that simple."
Aki frowned. "Think about it."
Obi's world tilted, the ceiling spinning, his vision narrowing to a single point—
And then, everything went black.