The sirens cut through the night like blades, their wailing bouncing off the high walls of City J. Kaizen stood at the edge of the street, his body wrapped in fresh bandages, the ache of his training still gnawing at every nerve.
But there was no time for rest.
Monsters. Multiple signatures, at least Demon-level by the Hero Association's frantic broadcast. Already, smoke curled upward in the distance, black against the crimson sky.
Kaizen clenched his fists. This is it. Time to see if I can stand.
When he arrived, chaos had already swallowed the city block.
Cars lay overturned, flames devouring their frames. Civilians ran in blind terror, their screams merging into one long note of despair. And towering above it all were the beasts: hulking, twisted forms born of mutation and hunger. One resembled a centipede with steel-like carapace; another a wolf-like brute with claws that raked through concrete as if it were sand.
Several low-ranked heroes fought desperately to hold the line. A C-class martial artist's knuckles split against the monster's armored hide. A B-class blaster's energy bolts fizzled uselessly. One by one, they began to fall, bloodied and broken.
Kaizen stepped forward.
The wolf monster's head snapped toward him, lips peeling back in a snarl. It lunged.
The impact was immediate teeth sinking into Kaizen's arm, claws raking across his ribs. Pain flared white-hot, but this time, Kaizen did not collapse. His stance held, legs rooted like stone, just as Loincloth had drilled into him.
"Not… this time," Kaizen growled, twisting his body. His other fist drove into the monster's jaw, snapping its head back. The beast staggered, but did not fall.
The centipede lunged next, its armored body crashing against him like a freight train. Kaizen felt his bones creak, his lungs squeezed of air but he did not break. He slid backward, feet carving trenches into the dirt, but he remained standing.
The younger heroes stared in disbelief.
"He's… holding them off?"
"That guy he's not even registered, is he?"
"Doesn't matter. Look at him! He's not falling!"
The wolf came again, claws flashing. Kaizen blocked with his forearm, the flesh tearing, blood spraying. His vision swam, but his body his foundation absorbed the shock.
Pain is not the enemy, he reminded himself. It's the teacher.
With a roar, Kaizen surged forward, using the momentum of the blow to drive his knee into the wolf's ribs. A crack split the air. The monster howled, staggering back.
But before Kaizen could breathe, the centipede slammed into him again. This time, Kaizen was thrown across the street, smashing through a wall. Dust and rubble buried him.
The heroes gasped. "He's down!"
"No one could survive that"
The rubble shifted. Slowly, agonizingly, Kaizen rose. His body dripped blood, his chest heaved with ragged breaths, but his eyes burned with fire.
"I'm… not done."
He stumbled back into the street. The monsters blinked in surprise. The heroes fell silent.
Each step Kaizen took was agony, but he embraced it. This was the proof of his endurance. Not perfection. Not invincibility. But the refusal to remain down.
The wolf lunged once more, aiming for his throat. Kaizen caught its jaws with both hands, the teeth biting into his flesh, blood streaming down his arms. His legs quivered, but he forced them to hold.
With a guttural shout, he twisted, snapping the beast's neck with a thunderous crack. The wolf collapsed, twitching before going still.
The centipede screeched and lunged again, but Kaizen was ready. He sidestepped, his body screaming in protest, and drove a fist into the gap of its armor. Another. Another. Each strike was agony, but he did not stop.
"Fall!" Kaizen roared.
Finally, the carapace shattered. The centipede convulsed, ichor spraying as it collapsed in a heap of twitching limbs.
The battlefield fell silent.
Smoke drifted across the broken street. The heroes who had been fighting moments before now stood frozen, their weapons hanging uselessly at their sides.
Kaizen staggered, bloodied and broken, but still upright. He looked around at the civilians who peered out from behind rubble, their terrified faces softening into awe.
For the first time, Kaizen realized something. Endurance wasn't just for himself. It wasn't just about withstanding Garou, or proving he could survive the merciless training of Loincloth.
It was about this.
Standing when no one else could. Bearing the weight when others would crumble. Becoming the wall that even monsters could not break through.
As medics rushed to tend to the wounded heroes, one B-class fighter approached him, eyes wide.
"Who… who are you?"
Kaizen opened his mouth, then hesitated. What name could he give? Not a hero name he had none. Not a beast name he rejected that.
"…Just someone who won't fall," he finally said.
The hero nodded slowly, still staring at him as if trying to memorize the sight.
Later, when the fires were dying down and the monsters' corpses smoldered, Kaizen sat alone on the steps of a broken building, clutching his ribs. Every muscle screamed, every wound throbbed, but his spirit felt lighter than it had in months.
For the first time since his battle with Garou, he no longer doubted why he fought.
Not for glory.Not for recognition.Not even to silence the beast within.
He fought to endure for himself, and for the people who needed someone to stand when no one else could.
Kaizen looked up at the night sky, the stars peeking faintly through smoke. His lips curled into a faint, bloody grin.
This… this is my path.