The air in the derelict playground crackled with a tension so thick it felt like static on the skin. The distant city sirens were a meaningless whisper against the suffocating silence between the two men.
Kafka Hibino's mind was a frantic high-speed collision of a thousand thoughts.
This was Sovereign. The unreadable, unkillable bogeyman that had the entire Defense Force twisted in knots. The being whose casual display of power had shattered the worldview of geniuses like Kikoru Shinomiya and Soshiro Hoshina.
And he knew.
He somehow knew about the parasitic, symbiotic, monstrous… thing living inside of him.
"I… I don't know what you're talking about," Kafka mumbled, a pathetic bead of sweat tracing a path down his temple. Denial was the last shield he had left.
Sung Jin-Woo's face remained a placid mask of indifference, but Kafka felt a subtle shift in the atmosphere. The pressure, which had been a heavy blanket, was now a pinprick, focused entirely on him. It was the difference between standing at the bottom of the ocean and having a needle pressed against your eye.
"Don't you?" Jin-Woo's voice was soft, yet it carried an edge that cut through Kafka's defenses. "You've tasted its power. You crave its strength. But you're afraid of it. You fight it. You cage it. Like a man trying to wrestle a dragon into a birdcage. It's pathetic."
Each word was a precise, calculated blow. Kafka flinched. He was describing the core struggle of Kafka's life with unnerving accuracy.
"The creature inside you… it has potential," Jin-Woo continued, his violet eyes seeming to see beyond the physical. "Raw, untamed, primal power. But under your control, it's a flailing infant. Wasted."
Kafka swallowed hard, his throat dry as sandpaper. "Who… what are you?"
A faint, almost sad smile touched Jin-Woo's lips. It was an expression so fleeting that Kafka wondered if he'd imagined it. "I'm a king without a kingdom. A shepherd without a flock. And you… you are a monster who still thinks he's a man."
He took a step closer. Instinctively, Kafka took a step back, his hand flying to his chest where his broken ribs screamed in protest.
"You saw what I did in Yokohama," Jin-Woo stated, not as a question. "That was a fraction of a fraction of what I'm capable of. I did that while my power was at its absolute ebb. Imagine what true strength looks like."
Kafka didn't have to imagine. The scene of the Juggernaut being swatted from the sky like a fly was permanently burned into his memory. To hear that it was an act of weakness… the concept was so terrifying, his mind refused to fully grasp it.
Jin-Woo gestured towards the pulped remains of the intelligent Kaiju plastered on the wall. "Your world is under threat. Not just from mindless beasts, but from something intelligent. Something that creates, that strategizes."
His gaze sharpened. "And your protectors? The Defense Force? They are children with clever toys, fighting a forest fire with water pistols. They can't win. They are destined to fail."
"You're wrong!" Kafka found a spark of defiance. "Mina… Commander Ashiro and the others… they're the strongest there are!"
"Their 'strongest' required an entire division and their ultimate weapon to face a single one of the enemy's pawns," Jin-Woo countered, his voice cold and factual. "I ended it with a gesture. Do not mistake stubbornness for strength. Their methods are inadequate. Their power is limited by metal, gunpowder, and the flesh of their enemies. They are building a wall of sand against a tidal wave."
He stopped, his presence seeming to fill the entire alleyway. He was no longer just a man, but an eternal, immovable force.
"I am offering you a choice, Kafka Hibino."
Hearing his own name spoken by this entity sent a fresh wave of shock through him. He knew his name. How did he know his name?!
"Cease this pathetic internal struggle," Jin-Woo said, his voice dropping to a near whisper, a hypnotic, compelling tone. "Acknowledge the power within you. Let me show you how to hone it, how to control it, how to make it a part of you instead of a prisoner. Become a true predator."
He extended a hand. "Do this, and you will have the strength to protect whatever it is you wish to protect. You will become more than their secret weapon. You will become their salvation."
The offer hung in the air, heavy with unspoken promise and undeniable danger. Control. Power. Everything Kafka secretly wanted. The ability to stand on the front lines, not as a secret, but as a genuine hero.
"And what do you get out of it?" Kafka asked, his voice strained. No one offered this kind of power for free.
"Information," Jin-Woo answered simply. "You will be my eyes and ears inside the Defense Force. You will tell me everything they learn about these Kaiju, about their creator, about any new threats. You will bring me the cores of any powerful monsters you defeat."
"Kaiju cores? Why?"
"Your world has no mana. I need a source of energy to replenish my own. Those cores, while crude, will suffice. For now."
A bargain. Power for intelligence and resources. A devil's deal under the pale glow of a Shinjuku moon.
Kafka was terrified. But beneath the terror, a dangerous ember of excitement was kindling. The man—the king—in front of him was right. He was flailing. He was afraid. He held the power of a hurricane in his hands but was only strong enough to conjure a breeze. What if…? What if he could actually learn to control it?
"I… I need to think about it," Kafka said, his mind reeling.
Jin-Woo's hand remained extended. His expression did not change. "There is no time to think. Your enemies are not thinking. They are evolving. Adapting. Right now, a creator of monsters is learning about me. It will create something new. Something stronger. Something to counter what it saw. The war is escalating. Will you be on the battlefield, or cleaning up after it?"
The jab was personal, pointed. It hit Kafka right where it hurt most: his sense of inadequacy, his janitorial mop and bucket a symbol of his place on the sidelines.
Kafka looked at the hand. An ordinary human hand, yet it held the promise of unimaginable power. He looked up at the cold, violet eyes, the eyes of a monarch who saw the world not as it was, but as a chessboard.
His own monstrous power stirred within him, a silent roar of approval. It recognized a kindred spirit. Or perhaps, its master.
With a trembling breath, fighting every instinct that screamed at him to run, Kafka Hibino reached out and shook Sung Jin-Woo's hand.
The grip was firm, cool, and carried a weight that seemed to settle deep in his soul. A contract was sealed.
FWUMP.
As soon as their hands parted, a heavy object landed at Kafka's feet. It was the central torso of the splattered Kaiju. A pulsating, faintly glowing organ, the size of a grapefruit, was visible within the wreckage.
The Kaiju core.
"Your first lesson," Jin-Woo said, his form already starting to blur at the edges as he prepared to meld into the shadows. "Consume it. Don't let your human side reject it. Force it down. Make its power your own. That is the first step to becoming more."
And with that, he was gone. Dissolved into the darkness, leaving Kafka alone in the alley with a dead monster, a rescued cat, and a terrifying, world-altering decision that he had already made.
Kafka stared down at the grotesque, pulsating core. His stomach churned. He was supposed to… eat that?
From the very depths of his being, he felt Kaiju No. 8 surge with a voracious, undeniable hunger. It wasn't a suggestion. It was a craving. A demand.
With a shudder of revulsion and a flicker of desperate hope, Kafka knelt down. The predator's bargain had begun.