Reno Ichikawa stood in Mina Ashiro's private training room, a cavernous space filled with the most advanced combat simulators on the base. He had been through hell for the past week. Mina's training regimen was on another level—a relentless, punishing gauntlet designed to push him far beyond his limits.
But it wasn't just physical. Between grueling sparring sessions, she would question him. Her inquiries were subtle, never mentioning Kafka directly, but always circling him.
"You and Hibino were an effective team," she'd say, wiping sweat from her brow after disarming him for the tenth time. "He had a unique way of seeing a battlefield, didn't he?"
"He knew things," Reno would grunt, picking himself up. "Weak points. Patterns. Stuff that wasn't in the books."
Today, Mina decided the subtle approach was over. She dismissed the training simulator and faced him directly, her expression grim.
"Ichikawa," she began, her voice leaving no room for evasion. "I know you were there. At the tournament. In the lower levels. And I know you lied in your report. Now, you will tell me the truth. What happened to Kafka Hibino?"
Reno paled, his carefully constructed walls crumbling under her direct assault. This was the Captain, the woman Kafka had admired his entire life. He was torn between loyalty to his friend and his duty to his commanding officer.
"Ma'am... I can't. It's..."
"Is he alive?" Mina pressed, her voice sharp with an emotion that was not just a Captain's curiosity, but a friend's desperate need to know.
Reno hesitated, then gave a single, tight nod.
A wave of relief washed over Mina, so profound it almost buckled her knees. He was alive. "Where is he?"
Before Reno could answer, the entire room bathed in crimson light. A piercing alarm, a priority one threat alert, blared through the speakers.
"Captain Ashiro!" a frantic operator's voice yelled over the comms. "It's Kaiju No. 9! He's breached the main research vault! He's not after specimens this time... he's after data! He's trying to steal everything on Project Chimera and the Bio-Enhancement program!"
Mina's blood ran cold. It was the worst-case scenario. No. 9 wasn't just evolving; he was now trying to steal the secrets of their own evolution.
"I'm on my way," she commanded, already sprinting towards the exit. "Ichikawa, with me!"
The main R&D building was in chaos. Alarms blared, soldiers scrambled, but the real fight was in the server room. A massive hole had been torn in the reinforced wall. Inside, Kaiju No. 9, now in a larger, more combat-oriented form, stood draped in a dozen stolen data cables, information flowing directly into its monstrous body. A squadron of First Division elites lay unconscious or wounded around it. It had dispatched them with contemptuous ease.
"So, the Symbol arrives," Kaiju No. 9 hissed, its voice a discordant symphony of stolen voices. It dropped the cables, its mission apparently complete. "You are too late. Humanity's secrets are now mine."
"You're not leaving with them," Mina snarled, leveling her massive rail cannon.
"Oh, I'm not leaving at all," the monster replied with a chilling amusement. It raised a hand, and a new, horrifying creature began to form from its own body, a biological clone taking shape. But it wasn't a random monster. The features were sharpening, hardening into a familiar, hated visage.
The clone solidified. It was a perfect, monstrous replica... of Mina Ashiro. A Kaiju-Mina, its eyes glowing with malice.
"You are their symbol," No. 9 gloated. "Let's see how they react when their precious symbol starts tearing them apart."
The Kaiju-Mina let out a roar and charged, not at Mina, but towards the panicked crowds of non-combatant researchers and scientists evacuating the building. It was a devastating psychological attack.
Mina was caught in an impossible bind. She couldn't fire on the clone without risking the lives of the civilians. She couldn't abandon the fight with the real No. 9.
It was in this moment of perfect crisis that her new cadet made a decision. Reno Ichikawa looked at the monster impersonating his Captain, the monster who was threatening innocent lives, and he made a call. He pulled out a small, encrypted burner communicator—a device he had been given for one purpose only.
He spoke a single, desperate word into it. "Help."
Two kilometers away, in Saitama's apartment, Kafka felt the comm unit vibrate in his pocket. It was the panic button. He had given it to Reno after the tournament, just in case. "Only use it," he had said, "if the world is ending."
He leaped to his feet. "It's Reno. He's in trouble."
Saitama, who was in the middle of a very intense video game, paused. "Is it loud trouble?"
"The worst kind," Kafka said, his face grim. He ran to the balcony.
"Ugh, fine," Saitama sighed, putting down his controller. "This better be important. I was about to get the high score."
Back at the R&D building, Mina was engaged in a brutal, desperate battle with Kaiju No. 9. It was faster and stronger than ever, its body now shifting and adapting mid-combat, forming shields to block her energy blasts and blades to counter her physical attacks. She was being pushed back.
Her Kaiju clone, meanwhile, was wreaking havoc among the evacuees. Reno tried to stop it, his rifle fire peppering its hide to no effect. The monster swatted him aside like a fly, sending him crashing into a wall, unconscious.
It loomed over a group of terrified scientists, ready for the slaughter.
And then, two things happened at once.
First, a blur of yellow and red arrived.
Saitama landed directly in front of the Kaiju-Mina, between it and the scientists. He looked at the monstrous, distorted replica of the "big gun lady" from the fight he'd seen.
"Wow," he said, his voice flat. "You are super ugly."
The Kaiju-Mina roared and swung a massive, clawed fist. Saitama didn't even flinch. He just caught the fist in his open palm. The impact, which should have leveled the building, created only a soft thump. He held the fist effortlessly, the monster's immense strength a complete non-factor.
At the exact same moment, another figure landed silently behind the real Kaiju No. 9, who was still engaged with Mina.
It was Kafka. No, it was Kaiju No. 8.
He had transformed mid-leap, knowing there was no time for subtlety. This was the moment of truth. He was revealing himself to the one person whose opinion mattered most.
Mina, thrown back by a blow from No. 9, looked up. Her eyes widened in utter, soul-shaking disbelief. Standing behind her nemesis was the monster from the exam. The mysterious Kaiju No. 8. And it was... protecting her.
"YOU!" Kaiju No. 9 hissed, spinning to face this new, old threat. "The specimen! You came to me!"
Kaiju No. 8 didn't speak. He just drew back a hardened fist, a low, guttural growl rumbling in his chest. For the first time, he wasn't hiding. He wasn't running. He was choosing his side, openly and irrevocably.
Mina Ashiro stared, her mind connecting a dozen impossible dots. Kafka's anomalies. Hoshina's obsession. His disappearance. This monster... its fighting stance, the look in its eyes... it was all so terribly, achingly familiar.
The political weapon's gambit had led her right here, to the heart of every secret. And the truth was a monster she had known her entire life. Her world, and her heart, fractured into a million pieces. The real war, for her, had just begun.