It was morning. Kaminari Mizuhi sat on the edge of his futon, pulling socks over his feet. Shirt. Coat. Shoes by the door. He double-checked the lock, then stepped out.
A short drive later, the government facility came into view. As he crossed the lot, he spotted her.
Hinata—tie loose, leaning over the terrace railing, cigarette between two fingers.
"You know that's bad for you," Mizuhi called.
She didn't turn.
"And you know how many times you've told me this?"
She glanced back. "Anyway, weren't you going to meet the barista for interrogation?"
"Just questions. And no café opens at 7 in the morning."
Hinata stubbed the cigarette. "Well, mine does."
"Not that one."
She adjusted her coat and walked inside. Mizuhi followed.
His phone buzzed.
He checked it.
A face.
Blonde. Cold eyes.
Dolph.
A voice came through his phone and every screen.
"It's been long, humans."
Mizuhi ran. Inside, chaos. Screens hijacked.
He reached a technician.
"Track him!"
"Trying—it's not... working."
"What do you mean, not working?"
"The broadcast's not coming from anywhere. It's like the data's embedded in the screens."
Mizuhi stared. "That's not possible."
The scene shifted to Ship
Everyone gathered at the table. Akira lay unconscious below.
Silva stood, arms crossed.
"We wait. That's it."
Jinka slammed the table. "We can't just sit here."
Silva looks at her and says
"Akira's sick. God knows what it is."
Kiluar adds. "Now you believe in God."
Silva says,"No lead on Dolph. We can't wander aimlessly—"
Static.
Dolph.
Silva pointed. "Ginto."
Ginto got to work.
Dolph's voice came through.
"It's been long, humans."
Smile. Pause..... for a few seconds.
"You've patiently waited for my next message. great. You made some speculations about me. Some of your guesses were right. Others... wrong."
"Well, let's start with the obvious one, yes, I'm real."
"And so is your end." As he looked forward.
"But I won't just kill you. That's boring. I give you a chance. A hope."
Silva: "Anything, Ginto?"
Ginto: "No. Not yet."
"Hope," Dolph continued. "Three days. Fight me."
"I like a place here on earth."
"The Colosseum."
"04/21. You get your chance. Send your best. One shot. No rules. Win—I leave. Lose...you know the rest."
"I know the outcome, but let's give you the hope you love and adore, yeah, that'd be fun", as his smile widened.
"Goodbye, humans."
Screens went dark.
"Bullshit! No human can take him down." silva slamed the wall
Jinka added, "They've got weapons, right?"
Barock replied, "Not enough. They aren't strong."
"They got strong ballistic weapons, but they can be easily intercepted by Dolph's defence system."
Jinka looked at Silva, "Then you fight him."
Silva replies, "And if I win? Think that ends it?"
" he wants humans to win, not anyone else, then he leaves. if i interfere, he gets them"
Jinka replies, "Not if you kill him."
"No. Killing him triggers worse. He'll destroy this whole plante detonate it, I know him" Silva says
Jinka adds, "So we let humans get wiped out?"
A voice cut in.
"Akira."
Alph shimmered into view.
"He's human. He'll do it."
Kiluar looking confused says
"Where did you come from?"
Alph replies
"I rushed here after hearing the news."
Alph replies, "He has Silva's cells. That changes things."
Jinka looks at her
"He's barely alive."
Silva, looking at the screen, "Doesn't matter, He's still behind Dolph."
"We don't know that."
A voice from behind them.
Akira.
Leaning on the doorframe.
Alive.
Mizuhi, standing in the cafe
Mizuhi goes
"HUH! She's not here for work today?"
Barista: "Yeah. You got a Problem with that? Wait! You're that creep from last night?"
"No.. no I'm from Public Security."
As he flashed his badge.
"What do you want? Is she a criminal?"
Mizuhi replies
"No. Possible witness."
The barista hesitated, then wrote an address. Gave it to Mizuhi.
Mizuhi standing at ALPH'S apartment
Mizuhi rang the bell. No answer.
Tried the knob. Locked.
"She isn't home?"
He sighed.
"There goes another lead."
Mizuhi stepped away from Alph's door, hands in his coat pockets. He didn't look back. Just walked down the steps and out onto the street, head down.
The scene shifts to a Room.
The estate was enormous. Marble floors. Soft carpets. Tall windows that never opened.
"You're not like the rest," said the faceless voice. Gentle but cold. "Your last name comes with expectation. Don't shame it, Mizuhi."
The boy sat at a piano. His fingers pressed keys with mechanical rhythm. He didn't like the sound.
Foreign tutors came and went. Mandarin, German, French. He memorized vocabulary but never used it. Memorized music pieces, then forgot them.
He never smiled when he passed the giant dining table, the echoing halls, the portraits of people who looked like him but weren't.
Only the family crest seemed to stare back with any feeling at all.
He hated the uniform. The bowtie. The weight of perfection expected at breakfast.
He hated the silence that came with failing at nothing.
Mizuhi now reaches his office.
Mizuhi dropped into his desk chair, loosened his tie, and exhaled hard.
Hinata leaned over the partition, sipping from a paper cup.
"So," she asked, "you met the girl?"
"No."
Hinata blinked. "Hmm. Then I guess we've got something serious here. Foreign ministry's scrambling. Trying to handle things their own way. You wanna add something?"
"I just wanna find her," Mizuhi said. "She can answer a lot of questions. I'll try again later this afternoon."
Hinata stood straight.
"No."
Mizuhi looked over. "But this is important."
"Don't forget I'm your senior," she said, not smiling. "That's an order. Get back to the important stuff."
She walked off without waiting.
Mizuhi leaned back, hands over his face. "Damn it."
The scene shifts to a meeting.
The conference room buzzed. Translators whispered in their booths. Screens flickered through presentations. Security was tight, even for the UN.
A French delegate muttered, "Some teenager hacking news stations. This isn't war—it's a stunt."
A Nigerian rep shook his head. "Those creatures weren't a stunt. We saw the video proof sent in by Japan. "
The British rep cut in. "We have no verification. Satellite logs came back blank."
The Chinese representative calmly placed a photo on the table—blurred, but monstrous. "Then explain this. We have some more activities from the Vatican. And we do have eyewitness."
The Indian rep adds, "So if this is true, what does all of this mean? Do we fear them as they are asking us to do?"
French reps reply," Okay, let us consider this as truth, we send in people as they ask us for."
Then came a voice from the Japanese seats.
Boots on the table. Sunglasses low on her nose.
Hinata.
"You're too dumb to think humans can take them on."
A German rep scoffed. "We've got weapons."
"Not enough. Bullets won't cut it."
"Then missiles." He replied.
Hinata tilted her head toward him. "You gonna blow up the Colosseum?"
Silence.
"They're not from anywhere near here. If they've mastered intergalactic travel, their tech is decades—no, centuries—beyond us. We can't win by force."
An Indian delegate raised a brow. "Then what do you suggest, miss?"
Hinata dropped her boots, stood up.
"We activate the task force. Gather our strongest. Most advanced weapons from every nation. No rules, right? Then we use it."
She stepped away from the mic.
"The odds of losing are ninety-eight percent."
Pause.
"But we fight for the two that's left."
She walked out.
The spokesperson tapped the mic. "The only reasonable thing to do is to give our resources to the task force we set up."
"Our officials confirm that there are celestial species here on Earth, no radar detected them coming, their tech is far more advanced."
"Our best bet is to do as they say, face them. I request that all members contribute what they can. We let the task force take over this matter."
Italian rep, "She's right, our people have seen those creatures tear through concrete like paper."
A few quiet scoffs.
Mizuhi stood outside, looking up.
The sky above was calm.
He didn't feel calm.
His hands were clenched in his pockets.
And he stared.
Later, his phone rang
"Hey, everything good?" he asked.
"I won't be able to make it back, they are making me in charge of the task force, and the headquarters of the task force are here," Hinata said from the other side.
"Oh...good for you", Mizuhi replied.
"I want to take over on my behalf, do what you can. And ya talk to that girl"
She hung up the phone then.
The room's a mess.
Clothes on the floor, dishes in the sink, air thick with yesterday.
Mizuhi shifts on the mattress, barely a bed. His eyes land on the photo beside it—three people dressed sharp, frozen mid-laughter.
He brushes his teeth in silence. Cracks an egg.
Burnt toast again. He eats it anyway.
Bills on the table, unopened. He flips through them. A sigh.Shoes on.Out the door.
The bell above the café door rings the same way it always does.
He slips behind the counter, ties his apron.
The place smells like bitter beans and loneliness.
Later, a girl walks in—sharp eyes, calm voice.
"What'll you have?"
"Espresso," she says, looking at his face.
She sits down and then, casually, "Have I seen you somewhere before?"
Mizuhi doesn't flinch.
"I don't think so."
She nods."Never mind. I'm Hinata."
He just offers a small smile and starts the machine.
Steam hisses. The shot pours.
Back to present. Mizuhi was still at his table, a guy approached him.
"Don't feel like working today?"
Mizuhi looked back
"Oh...no it's just.." Mizuhi was lost.
"You are letting things overwhelm you", the guy replied.
"No, Mr. Ito, the things here are just too much."
"These are celestial beings. What the hell am I supposed to do against that?"
"What you can," Ito responded
"You don't have to do everything all by yourself, leave something for us too."
Mr. Ito smiled and left.
Mizuhi picks up his phone and tries to contact Hinata.
After some tries, she didn't pick up, and Akira gave up.
Then suddenly his phone rang.
"You know I'm busy, right?"Hinata shouted into her phone.
"Yeah yeah, wait, wait, I have something to add," Mizuhi said
"There are multiple of them and they are fighting each other"
"We have multiple clips of them now, and the guy from broadcast is nowhere to be seen. At first I thought they were his men."
"But why would they fight amongst each other, right?"
"Yeah, I too noticed that", Hinata replied.
"Oh you did?"
"Yeah, but not the different people one."She added.
"Do you think those others are helping us?" Mizuhi with a lowered voice.
"That'd be ridiculous to think, we can't make any assumptions right now". Hinata replied.
"But still, why were they fighting?" Mizuhi said.
Hinata tilted her head.
"Maybe someone's looking for them too".
Mizuhi kissed his teeth and hung up the phone.
"WAIT!....You up!" Jinka asked Akria.
Akira moves forward from the door frame and says
"Yeah, just some aches here and there from all those pins you put in me."
Silva gave a smile and said, "You know you were almost dead, we were about to dump you."
Barock teared up and rushed at Akira to hug him.
"I thought you were going to die," he said,tears still rolling.
Akira says, "Hey hey, we only met a few days ago, c'mon."
Everyone gave a smile.