WARNING: MATURE CONTENT:
This chapter contains graphic violence and injury descriptions.
The sun hung low and heavy over the school rooftop, painting the concrete in shades of amber and shadow. Two figures stood opposed, the air between them charged with a violence so palpable it seemed to crackle.
Hiro—in his full wolf form,
"You can't protect them all, boy," Takumi snarled, his voice a gravelly distortion of human speech. "You're weak. Sentimental. It makes you slow."
Hiro's golden eyes narrowed. "I'm strong enough to stop you."
"We'll see."
Takumi charged. There was no finesse to it—just raw, predatory speed. Hiro braced, caught him at the last second, and used the momentum to twist. For a heartbeat, they grappled at the edge, claws scraping cement. Then gravity took them.
They fell as one snarling, snapping mass—four stories down to the football field below. Hiro, with a desperate, calculated ruthlessness, positioned Takumi beneath him.
The impact was thunderous.
Dirt and turf erupted in a cloud. Students scattered, screams slicing through the afternoon. From the dust, Hiro rose first, body screaming in protest. Blood ran freely from a gash on his temple, his left arm hung at a wrong angle, but he stood.
Then the dust shifted.
"That…" came a voice, low and bubbling with malice. "Was pathetic."
Takumi emerged from the crater. Already, his body was knitting itself back together—cracked bones sealing, torn flesh stitching. His regeneration was visibly faster, a horrifying display of power. He shook himself, fur bristling, and in the clear light, Hiro saw the full scope of his enemy: eight feet of pure muscle and fury, scarred from countless battles, with eyes that burned like dying coals.
"Show me," Takumi roared, the sound vibrating in the chests of those still frozen in fear, "the real power of a black wolf!"
What followed was not a duel. It was a demolition.
They came together in a clash of claws and fangs. No weapons, no clever tactics—just brute force meeting brute force.
Clang! Their claws met first, sparks flying from the impact. They pushed, snarling into each other's faces, a test of pure strength. Takumi's forehead snapped forward. Crack! Hiro's head snapped back, blood erupting from his nose.
He stumbled, vision swimming. Takumi didn't relent. A swing of a massive paw, claws extended. Hiro dodged left and raked his own claws across Takumi's chest, opening deep, weeping gashes. The black wolf roared, but his pain became fuel. He seized Hiro's outstretched arm and twisted with monstrous torque.
SNAP.
White-hot agony seared up Hiro's left arm. The bone gave way, a sickening, jagged break. He screamed, the sound torn from his throat.
Yet his right fist was already moving. It connected with Takumi's jaw with a sickening crunch. A tooth flew, spinning and bloody, to land in the grass. Takumi spat a glob of crimson but didn't release his grip. Instead, he drove a kick into Hiro's side.
Crack. Crack. CRACK.
Ribs splintered. The air left Hiro's lungs in a wet gasp. He collapsed, curling around the blinding pain. Takumi loomed over him, lifted a heavy foot, and brought it down on Hiro's right leg.
SNAP.
Another scream, raw and ragged, tore from Hiro. This was it—the breaking point.
But something deeper, something older than pain, surged. As Takumi leaned in for a final blow, Hiro swept his good leg, knocking the giant off balance. As Takumi fell, Hiro dragged himself on top, a broken thing fueled by pure will. His right fist rose and fell. Crunch. Crunch. CRUNCH. Bone gave way beneath his knuckles; Takumi's skull fractured, a visible line splitting the skin at his temple.
Enraged and desperate, Takumi's clawed hand shot up, raking across Hiro's face.
Slash!
Fire exploded in Hiro's right eye. He reeled back, clutching his face, warm blood pouring between his fingers. His vision in that eye blurred, then darkened to a deep, throbbing red.
Both monsters now were ruins. They staggered to their feet—Hiro with one eye blinded, an arm and a leg broken; Takumi with a shattered jaw, a ruined wrist, and a skull fracture. They breathed in ragged, wet harmony.
With a last, desperate surge, Hiro caught a clumsy kick, twisted, and felt the pop of Takumi's kneecap dislocating. As Takumi fell, Hiro drove his claws forward, aiming for a fatal spot but finding the eye.
Squelch.
Takumi's scream was a sound of pure, undiluted horror. He collapsed, clutching his destroyed left eye, blood streaming down his face like tears.
They lay five feet apart in the ruined grass, two kings of carnage dethroned by their own violence, breathing in the silence.
It was then that the others arrived.
"HIRO!"
Luna's cry was a lance of pure terror. She, Lolo, Yuki, Kaede, Takeshi, and Io skidded to a halt at the edge of the field, their faces portraits of shock. The scene was one of a slaughterhouse: the churned earth, the splattered blood, and at its center, the two broken forms.
"Oh my god," Yuki whispered, her hand clamped over her mouth.
Takeshi simply stared, pale and uncomprehending. "What… what happened here?"
But it wasn't over.
With a sound like tearing leather, Takumi forced himself up again. His regeneration was still working, closing the eye socket into a ruined scar, mending the worst of the damage. He stood, listing heavily to one side, his single remaining red eye fixed on the barely-conscious Hiro.
"You…" he slurred through his broken jaw, "you DARE… mark me?!"
He began a torturous, limping advance toward Hiro, murder in his gaze.
"ENOUGH!"
Lolo's voice cut the air, sharp and commanding. She stepped forward, and before their eyes, her hands changed. Delicate fingers elongated, hardened, became wickedly sharp black claws that gleamed in the sun. A hidden demi-human trait, now revealed in fury.
She moved like lightning. A single, devastating kick connected with Takumi's chest with a sound like a cannon shot—BOOM! He flew backward, crumpling against the metal goalpost.
"You hurt my cousin!" Kaede yelled, her own fox claws—brilliant orange and glowing—springing forth. She and Lolo moved as one, a blur of coordinated fury.
Lolo was a storm of powerful, precise kicks and slashing guard breaks. Kaede was her shadow, a darting, agile striker using her speed to land cut after cut. Against their combined assault, even Takumi's brutal strength faltered. He blocked with his shattered arms, each parley sending fresh waves of agony through him, and was forced back step by painful step.
"TWO AGAINST ONE?!" he roared, spitting blood. "COWARDS!"
"Says the man who attacked a school!" Lolo shot back, and with a final, spinning kick, she smashed his already-dislocated knee.
Takumi went down hard, a pained growl escaping him.
On the ground, Hiro fought to stay conscious. The world swam in and out of focus through his one good eye. He could feel the familiar, warm itch of his regeneration at work—bones beginning to knit, flesh starting to seal—but it was agonizingly slow compared to Takumi's. A cold doubt seeped into his heart. Am I weaker?
"Hiro! HIRO! Stay with me!"
Luna was there, cradling his head in her lap. Her tears fell on his bloodied face, mixing with the grime. "Please… don't leave me."
He focused on her, the only clear thing in a blurry world. "Luna… are you… safe?"
"I'm fine! YOU'RE the one hurt!" she sobbed.
A faint, bloodied smile touched his lips. "Good… that's… good." His eye started to drift shut.
"HIRO! NO! STAY AWAKE!"
"Someone call an ambulance! Now!" Io's voice, tense but in control, sliced through the panic. Takeshi fumbled for his phone. Io knelt beside Hiro, her professional demeanor a thin veil over her worry. "He's breathing. His regeneration is working. He'll survive."
"Are you SURE?" Luna begged.
"I've seen it before. He just needs time."
It was a moment of fragile hope. A moment shattered by a low, guttural laugh.
Takumi, prone on the ground, began to change. His body contorted, expanding, becoming even more monstrous—a true, feral beast of legend. With his last reserve of power, he lunged—not at Hiro, but away, a powerful leap carrying him toward the school fence. An escape.
"He's getting away!" Lolo shouted, tensing to pursue.
But Takumi stopped at the fence line. He turned back, his single red eye locking onto them. A grotesque, bloody grin split his mangled face.
"You fools."
It happened too fast for any of them to process.
He wasn't fleeing. He was recoiling for a final, lethal spring. He moved like a shadow detached from the laws of physics, closing the distance between himself and Lolo and Kaede in the blink of an eye. His good arm flashed—a brutal, horizontal slash.
Two sprays of crimson arced through the air, beautiful and horrific.
Lolo and Kaede stood for a second, faces blank with shock. Then, deep gashes across their midsections bloomed red, and they crumpled to the ground simultaneously, like marionettes with their strings cut.
"Kaede! Lolo!" Yuki screamed.
"NOOOOOOOOO!" Luna's shriek was the sound of a breaking world.
Blinded by grief and rage, Luna charged. She, the human, the gentle one, ran straight at the monster. She swung her small fists, fueled by pure terror and love. Takumi, amused, let her come. He dodged her wild blows with contemptuous ease, playing with her.
One punch, fueled by desperate strength, connected with his broken arm.
His grin vanished. Pain and fury flooded his features. "You little insect!"
His hand shot out, not with a slash, but a swift, almost casual flick of his claws.
Luna froze mid-swing. A thin red line appeared across her throat. Her hands flew up, her eyes wide with surprise more than pain. Then, the line became a torrent. A cascade of brilliant red life spilled down the front of her uniform.
She looked toward Hiro, her lips forming a silent word—his name—before her legs gave way and she fell, a graceful, terrible collapse into the stained grass.
Time stopped.
Hiro saw it all through his one eye. He saw Lolo and Kaede fall. He saw Luna charge. He saw the spray of blood, like a macabre flower blooming in the air. He saw her fall.
A sound began in his chest, a low, wounded animal noise that built into a roar that tore at his own injured throat, a roar that held every ounce of agony, every shred of loss, every failing of his protection.
"Lunaaaaaa… no… no no no no… NOOOOOOOOO!!"
The sound was raw enough to break the sky.
Takumi turned from Luna's still form, his work done. He began his limping walk toward the broken boy who had started it all, his remaining eye gleaming with triumph.
"It's over, Hiro."
He stood over him, a dark giant against the setting sun. He raised his good arm, claws poised for the final, downward strike that would end the legacy of the black wolf for good.
Hiro, broken in body and soul, could only stare past him at Luna's still form, the world narrowing to that single, unbearable point of light fading into dark.
To be continued…