The cheers of the recruits were short-lived, choked off by a pressure that descended upon the square like a physical weight. It was a presence so malevolent, so utterly alien, that it made the Honju Queen feel like a mere nuisance in comparison.
On the observation deck, the triumphant atmosphere shattered as alarms blared—a sharper, more urgent frequency than before. The main tactical screen flickered violently.
"Captain! Massive energy spike!" Kikuchihara's voice was tight. "Two readings! Directly adjacent to your position! Fortitude levels are… 8.0! They're both off the scale! They weren't there a second ago!"
Below, the celebration died in Kafka's throat. A cold dread, a primal wrongness that grated against his very being, washed over him. His eyes snapped toward the source—a collapsed office tower to the north.
Akira felt it a microsecond later.
[Ravan: Catastrophic-level bio-signatures detected. Origin: unknown. Composition: does not match any known kaiju database. Fortitude: 8.0. Probability of shapeshifting/adaptive abilities: 99.9%. Warning: Hostile intent confirmed.]
This is it, Akira's mind raced, a flash of manga panels and anime scenes from a forgotten life. But there are two. This isn't right.
Without a word, he broke into a sprint toward the crumbling tower. Kafka, acting on pure instinct, was right behind him. "Akira! Wait! What is that?!"
Kikoru, seeing them bolt, charged after them. "Hey! Where do you think you're going?!" Reno, his senses screaming, ran after her.
They ran for barely fifty meters before Akira skidded to a halt, Kafka stopping beside him, his face pale.
"What… what's wrong?" Kafka panted.
[Ravan: Confirmed. Second catastrophic-level signature detected. Bearing: 270 degrees. Proximity: 80 meters. Fortitude: 8.0. Signature is identical to the first.]
Akira's head whipped around. The second presence was behind them. Directly where Reno and Kikoru were running.
"Reno! Kikoru! Stop!" Akira's shout was a raw command.
They froze. The air in front of them warped. A figure coalesced—humanoid, tall, unnaturally slender, with a single blood-red eye and a wide, stitched-shut mouth. Kaiju No. 9.
Its voice was a dry, rasping whisper inside their skulls. "Running is futile."
Across the square, near the northern tower, the first variant—bulkier, with jagged horns—appeared. It looked directly at Akira and Kafka.
Akira slammed his hand against his comms unit. "Captain Ashiro! Vice-Captain Hoshina! Sector D-12! Two unknown Daikaiju! Fortitude 8.0! They're intelligent! Request immediate support! They're—"
The first Kaiju No. 9 near the tower tilted its head. "No interference will be permitted."
Simultaneously, the one facing Reno and Kikoru spoke, its voice a perfect, chilling echo. "The melody of destruction shall not be interrupted."
Telepathy. They're linked, Akira realized.
Then, the air around both Kaiju No. 9s and their targets began to shimmer and distort, the light bending unnaturally.
"What's happening?!" Reno yelled, his rifle wavering as the ground beneath his feet seemed to lose substance.
Kikoru gripped her axe. "It's some kind of spatial distortion!"
Akira, near the northern edge, felt the same warping effect envelop him. He was trapped, an invisible force holding him. His eyes met Kafka's across the distance. The telepathic link was jammed. But his message was clear in the sharp shake of his head and the two words he mouthed with desperate intensity:
'Protect them.'
In a silent, terrifying flash of distorted light, it happened.
The first Kaiju No. 9 and Akira vanished.
Simultaneously, the second Kaiju No. 9, Reno, and Kikoru vanished.
The main square was suddenly, deafeningly empty. Only the groaning ruins and Kafka Hibino remained.
He stood frozen. "Akira…? Reno…? Kikoru…?" His voice was a broken whisper.
The sound of frantic boots echoed. Mina and Hoshina arrived, scanning the emptiness.
"Report! What happened? Where are they?" Mina's voice was ice.
"Nothing," Hoshina said, his hand on his blade. "No residue. They were erased."
From their comms, the tactical operator's voice was laced with panic. "Captain! We've lost all signals for Shinomiya, Ichikawa, and Kurogiri! They're completely offline! And the composite bomb organism is still forming! Its energy signature is destabilizing!"
Another operator cut in, shrill with disbelief. "Wait! New reading! A kaiju signature! It just appeared on the fortitude scanner in the main square! Fortitude level 8.1! It's—!"
On the scanner screen, a massive, terrifying blip appeared right where Kafka was standing. It pulsed once, a glaring red dot of pure kaiju energy.
Then, it vanished from the screen.
"It's gone! It disappeared!"
It wasn't gone. It was kafka .
In his moment of utter despair and frantic need, his body reacted. Akira's last command—Protect them—overrode everything. The transformation he'd been holding back surged forth, not into a full monstrous form, but channeling all its terrifying power into a single, desperate purpose: speed.
He didn't know how to fly. But he knew how to run. For them.
His legs erupted in a surge of blue, armored tissue, his feet distorting into powerful, clawed pistons. BOOM. With a sound like a thunderclap, Kafka shot forward, a blue-and-silver comet of raw power and determination. He wasn't heading to the shipping yards. He was chasing a ghost, a feeling, the fading echo of the teleportation. His every instinct screamed at him to find Reno and Kikoru.
He was a blur, tearing through the ruined streets, leaving a trench in the asphalt. He was a kaiju on the scanner for one single, terrifying moment, and then he was moving too fast, his energy too focused for the scanners to lock on.
Back in the square, Mina and Hoshina only felt a sudden, immense gust of wind and saw a blue streak vanish into the urban canyons.
"What was that?!" Hoshina hissed.
Mina's sharp gaze followed the path, then looked down at the spot where the kaiju signature had briefly flared. A single, deep crack in the pavement was there, still smoking faintly with blue energy. Her mind was confused : the disappearance, the brief kaiju reading, Kafka's absence.
Her lips tightened. "Hibino must have been also captured like reno and kikoru but why …" she murmured.
The tactical channel erupted. "Captain! The composite bomb! Critical mass! We have evacuees in the western sectors!"
The nightmare was multi-fronted. Their recruits were gone. A city-killing bomb was ticking. And one of their own had just become a monstrous blur.
Mina Ashiro made her choice. The citizens came first.
"All units! Converge on the composite organism! Maximum firepower! We are containing that blast! Hoshina! With me!"
Hoshina gave one last look in the direction Kafka had vanished, his grin absent, replaced by grim focus. "Right behind you, Captain."
They turned toward the certain catastrophe, leaving the fate of three recruits in the hands of a man who was now running as a monster to save his friends.
This story is inspired from various fanfics i have read from around the world so if you find any similarities please dont mind . Thank you
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T/N :
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