Ren hit the ground hard, his body bouncing once before he rolled across the jagged stone and debris.
The impact ripped a broken gasp from his lungs. His skin scraped against the rough floor, tearing open in places.
Dust exploded into the stale air, swirling thick around him. Darkness swallowed him, pressing heavy against his senses.
Everything was pain.
Every breath was a blade sawing into his ribs.
He lay there, stunned, his mind swimming.
"Move... get up... move..."
But all he could manage was a twitch, a helpless scrape of his boot against the rocky floor.
From somewhere above, he heard the wet, heavy thud of feet landing inside the mine.
Ren's blood froze.
"It's here."
Panic surged through him. He forced his arms to work, dragging himself forward through the rubble, fingernails splitting against the stone.
And then—
A voice.
A sick, twisted voice that slithered through the cavern, low and dripping venom.
"Yeah, crawl,"
the voice sneered.
"Crawl like the little bitch you are."
Ren's breath hitched sharply.
The creature took slow, deliberate steps closer, the sound echoing in the cavern, each one hammering Ren deeper into terror.
"That's the only thing you can do, isn't it?"
The voice taunted again, cruel and gleeful, savoring his weakness.
Ren's mind screamed that something was wrong—something was wrong with that voice.
It wasn't the same monstrous growl he remembered from that night.
It was—
It was—
His trembling fingers clawed at the ground as he tried to turn, tried to see.
And when he lifted his blood-smeared face toward the figure, realization punched the air from his lungs.
"...K-Kaito...?" Ren stammered, voice a broken whisper.
The figure—half shrouded in shadow, half illuminated by the faint moonlight filtering into the mine—grinned.
A grin full of hate, twisted and far too wide.
"So, you remember me now, huh?"
Kaito's voice slithered through the cavern. Distorted. Stretched. Mutated.
Yet unmistakably him.
The face that had once sat at the back of Ren's class—quiet, awkward, bruised too often—now stared down at him, filled with something inhuman.
Kaito took another step forward.
"You ran away."
His voice wasn't angry at first. It was hurt. Deeply, crushingly hurt.
Ren swallowed hard, tears stinging his eyes as he whispered, "I'm... I'm sorry..."
Kaito's face twisted violently, rage snapping through his features.
"LIAR!"
He roared, and the very walls of the mine seemed to vibrate with the force of his fury.
"You're not sorry! None of you are!"
Kaito's foot slammed into a nearby rock, shattering it to dust as his voice cracked with something raw and ugly.
"You ran away,"
"Just like everyone else. Just like those shitty 'friends' of mine. Like that cowardly teacher. Even my own parents."
Ren could only stare, heart hammering painfully against his ribs.
Kaito's voice grew harsher, bitterer.
"You think I forgot? Huh?!"
"You think I forgot all the times they stuffed my head in the toilet bowl? When they made me drink mop water, when they pinned me down and beat the shit out of me after school?"
"And you—"
Kaito's trembling, accusing finger stabbed the air between them. His shadow loomed huge against the crumbling walls of the mine.
"You were there."
His voice was raw, guttural, like every word carved its way out of a bleeding wound.
"You all were there."
"And you all just fucking watched."
Each word struck harder than the last.
Ren flinched with every syllable, as if Kaito's voice alone could break bone.
"Everyone fucking watched while I begged. While I screamed. While they ripped away whatever little dignity I had left."
Kaito's voice cracked — not with rage this time, but something deeper. Something so small and broken that, for a moment, Ren saw not the monster standing over him... but the boy who used to sit silently in the back of the classroom.
The boy no one ever saved.
Kaito shook his head slowly, bitter laughter bubbling up from his throat.
"But, of course,"
"Daichi's dad is a politician. Yuto's uncle is some big-shot businessman."
His words were poison, spat out like they burned his tongue.
"So they get away with it. That's how it works, right? Power protects power. Connections keep the bastards safe, while people like me—"
He slammed his fist into a rock wall nearby.
The stone shattered.
Dust rained down from the ceiling.
"People like me rot."
Ren crawled back a few more desperate inches, but there was nowhere left to go.
Kaito's eyes glowed faintly in the dark, wild and bloodshot.
"Everyone just wants to save their own backs."
His voice was hollow.
Flat.
Like he wasn't even angry anymore—just stating a truth he'd swallowed a long time ago.
Kaito smiled then.
A slow, gruesome curl of his lips that never reached his eyes.
"But it doesn't matter now," he said, voice low.
"Thanks to that freak with the magic tricks, I got what I needed."
"I already killed Yuto and Daichi."
He tilted his head, like remembering something minor.
"That cowardly teacher too."
The words hit like ice water, sending a fresh bolt of horror through Ren's veins.
"My own mom and big bro..."
Kaito's voice wavered — just for a breath — then hardened again.
"They're gone too."
Ren could only shake his head, tears slipping silently down his cheeks.
"Only my dad escaped," Kaito growled.
"But I'll find him. After I'm done with you."
His smile widened, grotesque.
"Just like your precious daddy and mommy."
The cavern seemed to tilt.
Ren's breath came in sharp, broken gasps.
He did the only thing his body would allow him to do.
He screamed.
"HELP!"
Ren's voice cracked, raw with terror.
"SOMEBODY! PLEASE!"
His voice echoed off the stone walls, bouncing back at him, warped and lonely.
Silence answered.
And then—
Laughter.
Low. Hollow.
Amused.
Kaito tilted his head, almost curiously, like a dog watching something squirm.
"How does it feel, Ren?"
Kaito's voice wrapped around him, thick and suffocating.
"How does it feel to scream for help... only to be ignored?"
He took a slow step forward.
Ren shrank back instinctively.
"How does it feel to know that no one's coming for you?"
The words pierced deeper than any claw or fist could have.
Kaito crouched slightly, meeting Ren's terrified gaze.
"Just like no one came for me."
Ren's lips trembled violently.
"Kaito..."
The name barely made it past his shaking throat.
"Please," he whispered.
For a moment — a heartbeat — something almost human flickered in Kaito's expression.
Almost.
Kaito exhaled through his teeth, an ugly sound.
Then his face stretched into something mockingly pitying.
"Well,"
He hummed, straightening.
He lifted a hand — a sick, unnatural glow pulsing at his clawed fingertips.
"I guess even you deserve some form of mercy."
Kaito's fingers curled, that sickly glow at his fingertips intensifying—crackling with unstable energy that made the very air feel wrong. The faint hum built into a low, pulsing whine that rattled Ren's bones.
"I'll make it quick."
Ren couldn't move.
Couldn't scream.
His body felt like dead weight, pinned beneath the crushing force of his own fear.
"So this is how it ends…." he thought,
The creature's arm raised, palm aimed directly at his chest.
Ren's heart badumped, fast and uneven, like it was trying to claw its way out of his body.
Tears blurred his vision, hot and frantic.
"I wish... I could've done things differently," he whispered, voice raw but steady. "Maybe been a better person."
There was no anger. No desperation. Only a quiet sadness as he watched the attack surge toward him, the air distorting violently around Kaito's outstretched hand.
"Maybe this is what I deserve."
He squeezed his eyes shut, bracing for the inevitable.
But the crushing force never came.
Instead—
A sharp crack split the air, followed by a burst of light.
Ren's eyes snapped open.
A shimmering yellow shield had materialized right in front of him, glowing bright against the suffocating darkness of the mine. The impact of Kaito's attack struck it head-on, sending ripples of golden energy pulsing outward.
Standing between Ren and the monster was a girl.
Her back was to him, but he recognized her immediately—the same girl who had appeared the night his parents were murdered, the one who had pulled him from the jaws of death.
The one who had vanished before he could even ask her why.
"You're not dying here," she said firmly, her voice cutting cleanly through the chaos, like a blade slicing through fog.
Kaito—or whatever was left of him—let out a wet, distorted laugh. The creature's translucent skin stretched grotesquely over his skeletal frame, his dull, leaking eyes glinting with twisted amusement.
"Are you having withdrawals now, you coward?"
The creature's voice slithered through the air, mocking and venomous.
Ren stared at the girl's back, heart pounding in confusion and disbelief.
"Why… why are you here?"
The girl didn't flinch.
Her focus stayed on Ren.
"Run."
Ren blinked, blood still roaring in his ears.
"...Wh-why are you—?"
"RUN."
The word hit him like a slap.
He shook his head, pushing himself up with trembling arms. "I— I can't— my legs— I'm—"
The shield cracked again.
Kaito's laughter echoed through the cavern, loud and gleeful.
"Coward. Always hiding. Always running."
"Face me like a man."
The girl's grip tightened.
The yellow barrier flickered dangerously.
"I'll hold him," she said, her tone cold but sure. "But you have to move."
Ren stared at her, panic flooding his veins. "Why? Why are you even doing this? You don't even know me—!"
She didn't look back at him.
"Because its the right thing to do."
Her voice was softer now, but resolute.
"So save yourself."
Another deafening impact slammed into the shield.
Cracks spiderwebbed outward violently, the golden barrier trembling under the monster's relentless assault.
Kaito's twisted figure loomed just beyond, the sickly glow of his body seething with hate.
Ren's breath hitched—
—and once again, memories flooded him, too vivid to ignore.
He saw his mother—that same warm smile in the small kitchen, her humming voice filling their modest home with peace.
He saw his father—the steady presence, the quiet strength, the guiding hand on his shoulder even when Ren hadn't deserved it.
They had been there for him.
Always.
He hadn't seen it until now.
The images clung to him, warm and heavy, squeezing his chest with something fierce and raw and undeniable.
It wasn't exactly pain.
It was something worse.
Something deeper.
"If I had just talked to them…"
"If I had just… tried to understand them…"
"If I hadn't locked myself away…"
Ren clenched his fists against the dirt, trembling, jaw set tight.
He grit his teeth against the sob clawing at his throat.
He pushed upward despite the screaming pain in his battered body—his thigh, his arms, everything protesting.
He staggered onto his knees.
Then onto one foot.
Then the other.
"Stand. Just stand."
"I see it now,"
he thought bitterly.
"I built those walls on purpose. I let the small hurts grow until they were massive. Until they poisoned everything."
Tears blurred his vision—hot, unstoppable—but he didn't wipe them away.
He took one shaky step.
Another.
The shield cracked again—deep and final now.
The golden light dimmed, thin and stretched to its limit.
Kaito's monstrous face sneered beyond it, clawed hand already raised for the final, killing blow.
The girl braced herself—ready to take the hit—
—but Ren moved first.
With everything he had left, Ren lunged forward.
The girl screamed—"NO!"
Ren shoved her aside, throwing his body between her and the attack just as the shield shattered into a million glittering shards.
For one breathless heartbeat, there was silence.
Then the full force of Kaito's psychic blast hit Ren dead-on.
An invisible hammer of pure, crushing power slammed into his chest, folding him in half and lifting him off the ground like a ragdoll.
The world blurred.
A sharp, sickening crack echoed through the cavern as Ren was hurled backwards, slamming into the jagged rock wall with brutal force.
Dust and debris exploded around him, the air thick with the sharp tang of blood and broken stone.
Ren collapsed to the ground, unmoving.
The girl scrambled up from where she had been thrown, horror twisting her face.
"REN!!!"
Her scream ripped through the cavern, raw, broken, desperate enough to make the very walls tremble.
The creature—Kaito—lowered his hand slowly, the grotesque satisfaction pulling at his pale, rubbery features.
The sickly glow around him flickered faintly, unstable and chaotic, as if feeding off the despair thick in the air.
The girl collapsed beside Ren's limp body.
Her hands hovered uselessly over him—trembling, unsure if touching him would hurt him even more.
Tears spilled down her cheeks, her shoulders shaking with silent sobs that built up and exploded into a guttural scream.
"You idiot!" she choked, her voice cracking. "Why did you do that?!"
Her fingers dug into the dirt. Her heart hammered against her ribs like it wanted to break free.
The grief twisted into something hotter, darker—
—rage.
White-hot rage flooded her veins, burning away the grief in a tidal wave of fury.
She stood.
Fast.
Her eyes locked onto the monster—
—and without hesitation, she charged.
Kaito's monstrous figure shifted, surprised, as she darted toward him, faster than before, golden shields flaring into existence one after another around her.
"You won't…" she began, her words barely audible, her essence flaring to life.
He lashed out with another psychic blast—
—but she ducked under it, shield flashing and absorbing the brunt.
Another strike came—sharp, jagged, brutal—
—she twisted around it, her body moving with pure instinct.
In a blink, she was on him. "…hurt anyone else!" she screamed, her voice carrying a furious resolve.
With a furious cry, she leapt, grabbing him by the distorted remnants of his shoulders.
"Get off me!"
it roared, thrashing violently, its voice a mangled mix of Kaito's human rage and monstrous distortion.
But her grip was unrelenting.
She gritted her teeth, pulling him closer, chanting under her breath—
steady, strong, unwavering.
"浄化の光よ,邪悪を滅ぼせ!"
("Light of purification, eradicate the evil!")
The air around them crackled, electricity sparking wildly through the cavern like a brewing storm.
Above them, the air split—
—and from the gaping wound in the sky, two enormous beams of golden light tore downward.
The beams twisted and coiled through the air like serpents made of the sun's own fire.
With a deafening BOOM, they slammed into the creature—
impaling it through its core with searing, radiant spears.
The monster screamed—a sound so inhuman and broken that the very walls of the abandoned mine seemed to quake with it.
Smoke sizzled from its translucent flesh, the light burning through it with relentless, divine energy.
But even so—
Even impaled and burning—
The creature wasn't finished.
With a raw, furious snarl, it speed blitzed out of the cavern—
moving with a blinding, desperate force—
dragging the girl along with it as she clung to him, refusing to let go.
The tunnels blurred past in a chaotic rush, the walls cracking and shedding dust in their wake.
Outside—
into the moon-drenched forest of Okutama—
the battle raged onward.