The rain was merciless. The National City has been dark outside in this highway road. The one speeding car and truck race through the dark night. The man in the car is watching behind the truck with the car's rear view mirror.
Sheets of water hammered the slick asphalt, drowning the night in silver. Headlights cut through the storm, beams stretching like spears into the mist. A car sped down the empty road, tires hissing. Inside, a man in his forties gripped the wheel too tightly, knuckles pale. His breath came quick and shallow.
He kept glancing into the rear-view mirror.
Because he knew—someone was following him.
When the truck's lights appeared behind him, brighter and hungrier than the storm itself, he cursed and pressed the accelerator. The sedan lurched forward, skidding dangerously. The truck kept pace, engine growling like a beast.
The collision came sudden and brutal.Metal shrieked. Glass exploded. The sedan flipped once, twice, before crashing into the guardrail. Silence returned, save for the endless rainfall.
The truck did not stop. It vanished into the curtain of storm, leaving nothing but twisted steel and a broken man.
Minutes passed.Then the man's fingers twitched.His eyes opened. They were no longer the dull brown of an ordinary people, but pale, luminous—like ash caught in moonlight.
Bone cracked. Skin writhed. His reflection in the shattered mirror was wrong: too sharp, too inhuman.
He staggered out of the wreckage, bleeding rain from his wounds. His mind was fog, but one thought seared through: I shouldn't be alive.
Yet his legs carried him. Step by step, through the storm, he walked home.
Not alive. Not dead. Something else.
An Orphnoch.
~~~~~~
Morning light painted a different world.
National City High buzzed with chatter, lockers slamming, sneakers squeaking on polished floors.
Ryotaro walked the hallway with calm, practiced steps, his uniform crisp, his bag slung casually over one shoulder. A transfer student from overseas—at least, that was the official story. To the crowd, he was simply another new face.
To Ryotaro, it was reconnaissance.
"Blend in," he murmured under his breath. His uncle's booming farewell still echoed from earlier: "Make friends, Ryotaro! Don't hide in your books all the time!"
Friends weren't the point. Information was. And high schools were rivers of information if you knew how to listen.
His eyes scanned the crowd. He read posture, tone, glances exchanged behind laughter. Cliques forming, hierarchies shifting. A different kind of battlefield.
Then he saw her.
A blonde girl, modest sweater and skirt, laughing softly with a few classmates. Her smile was too genuine, too radiant. Ordinary on the surface, but her movements… controlled. Like someone always holding back.
The name the teacher introduced rang clear: "Kara Danvers."Ryotaro's eyes narrowed slightly. So this is her. The rumored cousin of the Man of Steel. The future supergirl who is now living her ordinary life.
He sat two rows behind her. Close enough to watch. The girl also knows and glances back and watches who is looking at her. But Ryotaro has already looked away from her.
Classes blurred. Math, literature, history. Ryotaro answered questions when called, his voice polite but distant. Students whispered about the "mysterious transfer." After all, he is a little bit good looking.
But his mind was elsewhere—still on the rainy night.
News of the crash had already surfaced. A "tragic accident," the media claimed. The driver's body was missing, swept away by the storm.
Ryotaro didn't believe that.
During lunch, he slipped away to the library, spreading the local paper and his Frog Pod device across the table. The pod blinked, replaying surveillance fragments he had intercepted.
[Traffic Camera Footage Acquired.]
The crash played again. Frame by frame.
Ryotaro leaned closer. "The truck didn't slow. No skid marks. That was deliberate."
He tapped the table. A hit. And the man survived. Or rather… changed.
His thoughts sharpened. He remembered the first time he had seen one: the unnatural regeneration, the pale burning eyes. The Orphnochs were here too.
He almost smiled. So Ultra Dai Shocker has already laid seeds in National City.
That afternoon, something strange happened in class.
Kara Danvers had been quiet for most of the day. But when the topic of the car crash surfaced—students whispering rumors about the missing body—Ryotaro noticed her shoulders tense. Her pen froze above her notebook.
She knows something.
His eyes lingered a little too long. Kara turned slightly, meeting his gaze. For a heartbeat, it was like she could see through him—right through his layers of calm masks.
Ryotaro smiled faintly, polite. But inside his mind, wheels spun. Not just ordinary. She's sharper than she lets on. Maybe even suspicious of me already.
When the final bell rang, students scattered. Ryotaro walked home alone, the cityscape stretching bright and hopeful around him. But his mind catalogued every detail of the day like a detective's log:
Incident: Car crash labeled as accident. Evidence says otherwise.
Victim: Body missing, highly likely first-stage Orphnoch.
Suspects: Unknown driver of the truck—organized, professional.
Connection: Kara Danvers reacts unusually. Potential knowledge of meta-human or alien activity.
He closed the small leather notebook he always carried. The board is set again. A new city. New enemies. New players.
That evening, the rain returned.
Ryotaro slipped out, Hardboilder humming beneath him as he traced the streets near the crash site. The scent of oil still clung to the air. The railings remained bent, scarred with fire.
If this guy becomes an Orphnoch, he is going to kill the one who tried to kill him. So, I need to search the connection between them. Now, the victim became hunter and the perpetrator became prey.
"So, I need to start investigate an Orphnoch background and his enemies. One thing is certain this guy is starting to hunt down everyone of his enemies."
"What is her role in this, supergirl? Did her organization know something about them or she just worried like a normal person."
"This is going to be very interesting."
*********
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