The alley's silence seemed to breathe. Not the natural kind of silence—but a thick, sweaty silence that pressed against the ears as if the air itself was trying to escape. It was the kind of silence that came before the scream.
At the back of the alley, two eyes were lit. Not shining like headlights. Not alive like human eyes. But opaque, bluish, almost drowned in cataracts, like the lanterns of a sunken ship.
And then, a sound that didn't belong to the scene vibrated:
"Trriiim... Trriiim..."
A cell phone. Fallen in a dark puddle.
The light from the screen flickered, and for a second, the alley was revealed like an old photograph being forcibly developed:
A dirty sneaker, twisted on the ground. Cement stained with dry and fresh blood, mixed like paint and mud. A red trail dragged, leading from the sidewalk to the eyes.
They didn't move. But they went down.
The cell phone's brightness seemed to mesmerize the thing. The creature took a step. Then another.
And it came out of the shadows.
It didn't walk—it slid. Too tall to be human, narrow as a nervous thread. Its arms were too long, its joints bent wrongly. Its skin was re-stitched in symmetrical patterns, as if it had been sewn and torn from the inside several times. Every step creaked like old flesh on dry bone.
Its face had vestiges of humanity. But its mouth was an open wound that stretched almost to its ears, filled with human teeth—and fangs. Its nose was open like a cut. Eyes that didn't blink. Cracks came from its body—not from walking. As if each bone was being readjusted every second.
Jin felt his heart skip a beat. He took two steps back, swallowing hard. "This is... a horror movie?"
Kazuki squinted, as if wanting to deny his own vision, but his feet were already backing away. Daisuke flared his nostrils and instinctively placed his body between his friends and the creature. Oliver stopped breathing for an instant—as if the air refused to enter. Hiroito slowly closed his hands, as if preparing for whatever was necessary.
All of them retreated at the same time, as if they were a single entity with fear in their bones.
Kazuki didn't answer. Neither did Daisuke. Neither did Oliver. Neither did Hiroito. The four just moved at the same time, pulled by a primitive instinct.
They retreated to the alley entrance, as if something was calling them away.
Riku, Mayra, and Shun saw them emerge.
Riku's eyes widened, instinctively taking a step back. He had never seen fear in Kazuki's and Daisuke's eyes—not in the fights they got into, nor in their adolescent troubles. Mayra crossed her arms tightly, trying to keep control.
But her hands trembled. Shun just stood motionless. A cold feeling crept up his legs and squeezed his stomach like a barbed wire knot.
"What was it you guys saw in there?" Shun asked, trying to laugh, but his voice failed. "Say something!"
"Speak!" Mayra demanded, trying to see.
The cell phone stopped ringing. The light died.
Kazuki stretched his arm back. He said nothing. Jin understood.
He pulled the bat from his back with trembling hands, handing it over without a word.
Daisuke clenched his fists. His breathing accelerated, but his eyes didn't stray from the darkness. Oliver spoke softly: "Riku... protect Mayra."
And then came the sound.
Footsteps. Running.
"What is that?" Shun whispered, his heart racing.
Mayra's eyes widened as she saw the shadow growing inside the alley. "Something is coming."
Riku grabbed Mayra's wrist tightly, pulling her back with him to the side of the van.
Shun followed them, not understanding, but with his stomach tight.
"That's not human..." Oliver completed, almost as if he were responding to everyone's fear.
The creature launched itself from the alley as if the night spit it out. Its arms came open, like blades.
The vans' headlights hit the deformed body.
Kazuki was the first to react. A clean, horizontal blow with the bat.
But the creature grabbed the weapon with a single hand—and threw him with it.
Kazuki disappeared into the darkness. A second later:
THUD!
The sound of his body colliding with the concrete filled the alley like a hollow bell.
"KAZUKI!" Jin shouted.
Daisuke didn't hesitate. A single thought crossed his mind: not to let anyone get hurt again.
He ran and landed a direct kick to the creature's right leg joint. Oliver came right after, hitting the left.
The monster staggered. But it didn't fall.
Jin screamed and jumped—a desperate move. He was grabbed by the ankles in the air, suspended like a puppet. He spat.
The white goo hit the creature's eyes, and it flinched.
It was enough.
Hiroito, who had been running silently, felt the world shrink around him.
The sound, the light, the details—everything faded, except the point of impact.
He jumped with both feet and hit the creature's face. The sound was dry.
It fell backward, its arms hitting the alley walls.
Kazuki reappeared—limping, bloody, but on his feet. With a muffled cry of rage, he stepped hard on the creature's arm that was still holding Jin.
A crack.
Jin rolled to the side.
Kazuki raised the bat and brought it down.
One. Two. Three times.
The creature tried to get up, supporting its trembling arms on the alley sides. Hiroito, Daisuke, and Oliver pulled its legs hard, brutally unbalancing it. It fell again, its body colliding with the ground in a mixture of flesh and bone that seemed to collapse on itself.
Kazuki continued.
Cracks. Cracks. Cracks.
The bat sank into the skull. Each blow brought less sound—and more silence.
Until everything stopped.
Kazuki stood there, panting, with the bat dripping something dark.
No one said anything for long seconds.
Oliver broke the silence: "That... is definitely not human."
Jin approached Kazuki, his gaze worried. He saw the scraped shoulder, the torn shirt, and the darkened blood staining the fabric.
"Dude, are you okay? You're... covered in blood."
Kazuki took a deep breath, looked at his own arm and then at the ground.
"I am. Just scraped my shoulder when I was thrown against the wall. This blood... I think I fell into a puddle. It's not mine."
Jin nodded slowly, but kept staring at Kazuki for a few more seconds, as if trying to confirm for himself that his friend was still whole.
Mayra and Riku approached. Shun stood still on the curb, unable to move. Daisuke hugged Mayra without thinking.
She said nothing, but her hand gripped his shirt tightly.
Kazuki, Hiroito, and Jin returned to the alley. Jin's cell phone flashlight cut through the darkness.
Just ahead, a dirty sneaker lay in the corner.
Jin pointed the light a little further and saw the dark puddle mixed with blood.
"Damn... you were thrown all the way here?" he said, looking from the puddle to Kazuki.
Kazuki gave a contained half-smile, but his eyes still carried the impact of the fight.
"Yeah. Looks like it."
They continued forward, and what they saw... didn't seem to fit there.
A woman. Dead.
Stomach open. Organs scattered. Some piled. Others arranged... artistically.
Her eyes were open.
The smell hit them like a warm punch. Metallic. Rotten.
"Was she... alive while this was happening?" Jin asked, his voice choked.
Hiroito took off his shirt and covered the woman's face. "Maybe. But now, that changes nothing."
Jin knelt, his hands trembling. He hesitated for an instant, his gaze fixed on the device fallen near the victim's torn sneaker.
It was a strange, macabre decision, but the voice in his head insisted.
He picked up the cell phone. "I'm taking it. If they call again... someone needs to know."
Kazuki watched him in silence. His head nodded once, almost imperceptibly. A tacit permission for an impossible task.
The three carefully picked up the body. They carried it to the sidewalk.
Shun tried to approach. And then, he stopped. "What...?" He vomited. He coughed and vomited again, falling to his knees.
Riku ran and pulled him back.
Mayra put her hand to her mouth, approached, took off her shirt with trembling hands. "I know her..."
Pause.
"I don't know her name. But she always went to the Aoi Wave shows..."
Kazuki murmured: "We couldn't protect her. But we avenged her."
Silence returned, but loaded with a different weight. It wasn't just fear—it was the smell. The stain.
The emptiness. That wouldn't leave them anymore.
The seconds dragged on, heavy, before Oliver broke the spell with his voice.
Shun wiped his mouth with his forearm, still trembling. Mayra had closed her eyes for an instant, as if praying.
Riku gripped the bat too tightly.
Oliver adjusted his shirt collar and cleared his throat. "Guys... look at the NODUS."
Jin looked at him, dazed: "What NODUS?"
"That watch on your wrist, Jin. Its name is NODUS, okay?" "Nodus...?" "Yes, congratulations, you can read."
Oliver rolled his eyes, but there was something in his tense shoulders, in his forced sarcastic tone, that revealed how much he was also trembling inside. "Mine unlocked, and it's showing the name of the creature we just crushed."
"Oh... really?"
"No, Jin. I'm playing a video game here with a corpse next to me." Oliver's cynical smile broke at the end of the sentence, almost imperceptibly. "Of course it's real."
Kazuki looked at his own. A blue light shone.
[NODUS INTERFACE — HOLOGRAPHIC PROJECT]
▶ FIRST KILL CONFIRMED ▶ NEW BESTIARY ENTRY ▶ CONFIRMED AS RESPONSIBLE FOR THE KILL
And then, a voice—just for him:
"Do you wish to extract the ORION? If so, say 'extract'. If you decide not to extract, others may do so."
Kazuki hesitated for an instant. The creature's body still seemed warm, soft like freshly killed flesh. But then: "Extract."
A line of light connected the NODUS to the corpse. A subtle sound, almost like a wet whisper, preceded the emergence of a dark stone—wine-red, with living fissures that pulsed like a heart.
The stone floated slowly, rotating on its own axis. A low, almost organic glow emanated from within it.
When it was absorbed, the container around the NODUS began to fill with a thick, intense red liquid that undulated like an energetic fluid denser than blood. The display pulsed along with the rhythm of whatever was being stored.
"RAW ORION DETECTED. TRANSFORMING INTO LIQUID ORION."
Oliver still observed: "The bestiary here... says its name was Tir'uun. And this thing... is Raw ORION."
A type of energy.
Everyone looked at their devices.
Shun still trembled. "Mine... is still locked."
"Probably only those who fought unlocked it," Oliver said.
And this time, no one smiled.
Oliver slid his finger across the NODUS display, his eyes scanning the floating digital lines ahead. "The description... is limited."
It just says: "Tir'uun — threat level unknown. Incomplete data. Registration in progress."
He frowned. "It seems the NODUS needs more occurrences with the same creature to release everything."
"We don't even have a classification yet."
Jin wiped his dirty hands on his pants. "So even the system doesn't know what the hell this is?"
Oliver exhaled, looking at the dark sky. "Honestly? This whole thing smells like an experiment."
"Some kind of test, or a government biological weapon. Maybe population control, or genetic selection... but I have no idea of the purpose."
Kazuki interrupted, firm: "I know we're all tense and don't understand the situation, and I'd love to hear your theories, Oliver."
"But now, we have to see if everyone is okay. Our families. The people of Oshima."
Oliver nodded, silenced by the urgency in his friend's voice.
"I need to see my brothers," Daisuke said, his hand still clenched in a fist.
Kazuki took a deep breath. "I know this isn't the best time for us to separate... but the moment calls for it."
"I've seen too many horror movies. This separating thing never works," Jin grumbled, crossing his arms.
"I agree," Oliver said, and then added in a grave, almost philosophical tone: "Sometimes, surviving isn't choosing the right path... it's choosing the possible path."
Kazuki turned to Daisuke. "You'll go with the band's van. You need to go home, get your brothers."
"And see if Guru is there too."
Mayra stepped forward, serious: "We need to go to Mr. Daiko. He has tools, equipment... things we can use."
"Don't worry, we'll take care of it," Daisuke replied, glancing at Riku and Shun.
Daisuke, Mayra, Shun, and Riku got into the band's van, heading towards the Kibo building.
Meanwhile, Kazuki, Oliver, Jin, and Hiroito headed to the Kibo Delivery van. Destination: Oshima's residential neighborhood.
The two vans stopped side by side, their engines still rumbling irregularly.
For a brief moment, no one said anything. Their gazes crossed through the open windows, as if searching for something words couldn't express.
Kazuki leaned out of the Kibo van. "We'll meet at the Palace. All whole. All alive."
Daisuke replied with a brief nod and a half-smile.
It was the kind of answer that was worth more than a thousand words between friends who understood what was at stake.
"We'll all come back whole," Riku said firmly, looking at each one of the other group.
The doors closed. The headlights moved away in opposite directions.
The group split.
In the Kibo van, Kazuki took the wheel. His hands were firm, but his jaw was clenched.
The silence inside the vehicle was heavy, as if no one wanted to be the first to break it.
The streets of the Old Quarter were deserted. Not a soul in sight.
The houses closed, lights off, as if the neighborhood itself had held its breath.
But in the background, far away, the sound persisted. It came from the center of Oshima, growing with each curve: sirens. Gunshots.
Perhaps... screams. A chaos muffled by the concrete, but undeniably real.
Hiroito stared at the window, his own reflection staring back. His father was there. In the center. On duty.
And each siren made him swallow harder.
Oliver fiddled with the NODUS, but didn't speak. Jin tapped his fingers on his legs, his gaze lost.
Meanwhile, in the band's van, Daisuke drove in silence, his eyes sweeping every alley of the Old Quarter.
The scenery was different—too calm.
Everything closed. The house lights flickering: they blinked for minutes, then plunged back into darkness. No screams. No presence.
"This is wrong," Mayra murmured, her eyes alert.
"Too calm," Shun replied, his voice still choked.
As they turned the last corner, they spotted the Kibo building.
And they stopped.
The sidewalk was stained with blood. The garage gate... completely twisted, as if something had forced its way through it.
The iron plates were torn, the bolts ripped out.
Daisuke gripped the steering wheel. Mayra held her breath. Riku leaned forward, his eyes wide. Shun put his hand to his mouth, trembling.
His brothers lived there. Mr. Guru lived there. Mr. Masako lived there.
"No..." Daisuke whispered, opening the van door brutally.
The engine still echoed in the street. But no one came out of the building.
Daisuke got out of the van like a flash, his feet hitting the asphalt hard, his eyes fixed on the twisted gate.
The sound of his breathing was now too loud, almost as loud as the silence around.
"Stay here," he said, his voice tense, but controlled.
It didn't sound like a request—it sounded like an older brother's order.
Mayra hesitated, but nodded. Shun bit his lip. Riku was already opening the door too.
The Kibo building seemed dark. The dark windows were closed eyes... or dead ones.
The blood on the sidewalk didn't dry—it seemed fresh. Warm.
The gate swayed in the wind, groaning like tired metal. A dry snap echoed from inside the building.
"Someone's in there..." Shun whispered, cowering.
Mayra frowned. "Or something."
Riku held the bat he was carrying in the seat firmly. His hands were sweating. His throat was dry.
Daisuke took another step, his eyes fixed on the darkness of the hall.
"Please... let them be okay..."
The van still vibrated slightly, engine just turned off, but no sound rivaled the creak of the gate.
The wind made the metal groan as if lamenting what was to come.
Daisuke took another step. The darkness of the hall seemed alive—pulsating.
Each breath he took was harder than the last. His brothers, Mr. Guru, old Masako... the home they built.
Something was wrong.
The street watched them in silence.
The gate swayed once more—a drawn-out creak, like the deep breath of a hidden predator.
And there, on the threshold between courage and terror, Daisuke prepared to cross the last frontier of a night that hadn't ended.
The true carnage might not have even begun.