The world dissolved into a screaming vortex of nothingness. The Kaiju No. 9's final attack wasn't fire or lightning; it was the absence of existence, a sphere of erasure expanding to consume Akira Kurogiri.
[Ravan: Core meltdown cascade detected. Spatial annihilation imminent. Countermeasures: None. Probability of host survival: 0.4%.]
Akira didn't hear the warning. His entire being was focused on the blade in his hand. It wasn't just steel anymore. It was a conduit. The high-frequency vibration of the Blade Locusts hummed along its edge. The hardened carapace of a dozen kaiju reinforced its structure. The concussive force of the Toad variant gathered at its tip. The corrosive secretion of the Worm-type slithered along its length.
He didn't try to block the unblockable. He focused every ounce of his will, every stolen power, into a single, precise point in the expanding void—the epicenter, the source.
"SYNTHESIS: NULLIFICATION POINT."
He thrust his sword forward.
There was no colossal impact. Instead, there was a terrifying, silent implosion. The sphere of annihilation shuddered, its forward momentum arrested. For a horrific second, two impossible forces warred in absolute silence—the kaiju's power to erase, and Akira's synthesized will to exist.
Then, with a sound like the universe cracking, the sphere collapsed in on itself, sucking light and sound into a infinitesimal point before vanishing with a final, soft pop.
The shockwave that followed was purely physical, a ring of concussive force that blasted outwards. Akira, spent beyond all measure, was thrown backward like a ragdoll, his sword spinning from his grasp. He crashed through a rusted shipping container, landing in a heap of twisted metal, unconscious before he hit the ground.
Across the city, the battle reached its own crescendo. The slender Kaiju No. 9 had Kafka pinned, its bladed arm poised for a final strike.
"Your sentimentality is a flaw," it hissed into his mind. "You fight for weak, fleeting connections. They will betray you. They will fear you. It is the only logical conclusion for a creature like you."
It showed him flashes—images it had harvested from consumed minds: mobs with torches, soldiers opening fire on one of their own transformed, faces twisted in fear and hatred.
Kafka's single blue eye widened. The fear it projected was his deepest terror. But then he saw Reno, bleeding out because of him. He saw Kikoru, looking at him with horror and betrayal. They were hurt, but they were alive. He had protected them. That was all that mattered.
The fear curdled into a rage so pure it was blinding.
"THEY'RE MY FRIENDS!" Kafka roared, his voice a tectonic boom that shook the very foundations of the chemical plant.
All the doubt, all the fear, all the power he'd been clumsily wielding—it coalesced. The blue energy around him didn't just flare; it supernovaed. He channeled every joule of it, every ounce of his love and his fury, into his right fist. The armor plates on his arm glowed white-hot, the air around it distorting from the sheer, uncontrolled power.
The kaiju, sensing the catastrophic energy buildup, reacted instantly. It abandoned its blade and met the threat head-on, its own arm morphing into a massive, spiked hammer of concentrated force, aiming to smash Kafka's fist and him along with it.
Fist met hammer.
The resulting explosion was not of fire, but of pure, blinding white light and a shockwave of concussive force. It wasn't an atomic bomb; it was a localized star going supernova for a nanosecond.
BOOOOOOM-FFFFFF!
The light was so intense it bleached the color from the world. The sound was a physical thing that deafened everything in a half-mile radius. A mushroom cloud of dust, smoke, and released energy bloomed into the sky.
In the helicopter, the drone feeds whited out completely. "We've lost visual! Massive energy discharge!" the pilot yelled.
Mina's heart slammed against her ribs. "Get us there! Now!"
When the visual feed resolved seconds later, the scene below was one of devastation. The clearing was a smoldering crater. On one side, Reno was unconscious but stable, his suit's med-system having sealed his worst wounds. Kikoru was on her knees, coughing up dust, her body screaming in protest.
And in the center of the crater, the slender Kaiju No. 9 was gone. Vanished. Only Kafka remained, his massive blue form kneeling, steam rising from his body, his fist embedded in the cracked earth. He was motionless.
Then, his form began to flicker. The blue armor receded, the powerful muscles shrunk back. In a matter of seconds, it was just Kafka Hibino, unconscious and battered, lying naked in the rubble beside the crater his own power had created.
Kikoru stared, her mind reeling. The monster was gone. Kafka was here. He had saved them. He was... one of them. The initial disgust was still there, a deep-seated instinct, but it was now buried under a mountain of awe, confusion, and a dawning, terrifying gratitude.
The sound of approaching helicopters broke her trance. They were seconds away.
Think, Kikoru! her mind screamed. The Defense Force couldn't find him like this. The questions would never end. He'd be dissected. She had to protect him. He had protected them.
Acting on an instinct she didn't know she had, she scrambled over to Kafka. She grabbed his arm, grunting with the effort, and began to drag him away from the crater, toward the shattered doorway where the drunken men had appeared. They had fled, leaving a cellar door slightly ajar. It was dark and hidden.
She shoved him into the darkness just as the first helicopter floodlights swept over the area. She then stumbled back to Reno's side, collapsing beside him, her body wracked with pain, just as Mina's chopper touched down.
Mina and Hoshina leaped out, weapons drawn, scanning the area. Their eyes found Kikoru and Reno first, injured but alive. Then they saw the massive crater. The absence of the kaiju.
"Kikoru!" Mina was at her side in an instant. "Report. What happened? Where is the kaiju?"
Kikoru's mind, honed by a lifetime of discipline and quick thinking, provided the lie. Her voice was weak, raspy, but clear. "It... it was powerful. It defeated us. Kafka... he was knocked unconscious early on. We dragged him to safety... over there..." She pointed a trembling hand toward the cellar door. "Before we engaged. We... we thought we could hold it. We were wrong. It won. And then... it just left. It vanished after that blast."
Hoshina was already moving, kicking the cellar door open. His flashlight beam found Kafka, unconscious and bruised, but very much human and alive, nestled in the darkness. There was no sign of the blue monster.
Mina's sharp eyes scanned Kikoru's face. The story had holes. A lot of them. Why would the kaiju leave them alive? What caused the blast? But Kikoru's injuries were real. Her exhaustion was real. And the alternative—that the gentle, clumsy Kafka Hibino was the disaster-class kaiju that had just leveled the area—was a leap her logical mind, despite the evidence, was still struggling to make.
"Drones picked up a massive energy signature consistent with a kaiju," Mina stated, her tone leaving room for Kikoru to amend her story.
"It was the enemy," Kikoru insisted, meeting her Captain's gaze with a defiance that masked her panic. "It was its final attack. It must have teleported away after." She looked toward the cellar, her voice dropping. "Kafka had nothing to do with it. He was out cold."
The lie was placed.
At that exact moment, miles away, the horned Kaiju No. 9 variant stirred amidst the wreckage of the shipyard. Its body was heavily damaged, its power halved. It had felt its other half be utterly annihilated. The data was... unacceptable. The human, Akira, was a variable of catastrophic potential. It needed to retreat. To adapt. To evolve.
It saw Akira's unconscious form in the distance. The temptation to absorb him was immense. But the sound of approaching sirens and helicopters was closer. The risk was too high.
With a final, hateful glance, its body dissolved into a puddle of black, viscous liquid, seeping into the cracks in the ground and vanishing from sight just as Defense Force vehicles swarmed the location.
Mina's comms crackled. "Captain! We've found Kurogiri! He's alive! He's in a bad way, but he's breathing! The kaiju... it's gone. No sign of it."
On both fronts, the monsters had retreated. The immediate battle was over. But the mysteries had only deepened, and the wounds—physical and emotional—would take far longer to heal. The rescue had arrived, but the cost was written in the broken bodies of their best recruits and the unspoken lies hanging heavy in the smoky air.
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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