Yellow energy surged violently through Itsuki's iron bat, strobing in brilliant flashes as he swung it into position. "I ain't runnin' away from you anymore, you eyesores!"
Roaring with pure fury and absolute determination to eliminate the Malform, Itsuki twisted the handle of his iron bat, triggering a sudden boost mechanism. A violent, vacuum-like drag kicked up in an instant, coiling a razor-sharp whirlwind around the weapon before he slammed it forward in a massive sideways strike.
The Malform unhinged its jaw with a deafening screech, diving headfirst in a reckless, desperate attempt to crush Itsuki beneath its fangs.
"You haggards are gonna pay for what you did to Nene and everyone else!"
At full throttle, Itsuki's sneakers burned across the marble floor, leaving scorched marks in their wake as the terrifying pressure of Strigidae's power rippled outward. Time seemed to fracture as the two forces collided.
The electrified iron bat met the Malform's bone-armored skull in a catastrophic impact.
A blinding flare of golden voltage erupted at the point of contact, accompanied by a deafening thunderclap that echoed like an artillery shell going off in a closed room. The sheer kinetic force pulverized the creature's outer skeletal mask, sending bone fragments and dark blood exploding outward like shrapnel.
The resulting whirlwind detonated into a massive shockwave. A localized earthquake ripped through the shopping center's foundation, shattering marble floor tiles into powder and blowing out every remaining pane of glass in the upper balconies. The Malform's massive head snapped back with insane violence—its monstrous frame lifted clean off its feet and hurled backward across the atrium, destroying two concrete support pillars before violently plowing into the rubble.
However, the raw, uncontrolled power of his own strike bit back just as hard. The insane recoil slammed straight through Itsuki's hands and up his forearms, nearly tearing the iron bat right out of his grip. He was violently launched backward by the kinetic feedback, his boots skidding wildly across the ruined floor as he desperately fought to maintain his footing.
Itsuki barely caught himself, stumbling to a halt while leaning heavily on the bat. Beads of cold sweat poured down his deathly pale face, mixing with the dark streaks of blood under his eyes. His breath hitched in ragged, heavy gasps, his entire body trembling violently from the sheer strain of wielding Strigidae's raw force.
Through the rising dust, the Malform's dark flesh writhed in the debris. Despite the massive cavern smashed into its skull, its crimson eyes snapped open once more as it growled, far from dead.
Finally finding his footing, Itsuki leaned heavily on the bat, straining to suck in whatever thin air he could scrape together through the choking dust. His lungs burned like hot coals, every breath a ragged, agonizing effort as he fought to steady his trembling body.
Across the ruined hall, the Malform clawed its way out of the pulverized concrete. The bone mask shielding its skull was utterly shattered, leaking thick, dark fluid down its face. For the first time, the creature didn't roar in defiance—it let out a high, terrified whine. Whirling around in sheer self-preservation, the wounded beast scampered up a ruined support beam at blinding speed, bursting straight through the shattered glass dome of the rooftop and fleeing into the open sky.
"Hey! Get back here, you bastard!" Itsuki barked, taking a jerky step forward with his teeth grit. "I ain't done with you yet!"
His shout died in his throat. The adrenaline spike ebbed just enough for reality to slam back into his head, and his eyes darted straight toward the pool of blood spreading across the marble floor.
The heavy iron bat dissolved into golden static, vanishing back into thin air as Itsuki abandoned the chase entirely. He practically threw himself across the slick tile, sliding onto his knees right beside her motionless frame.
"Nene! Hey—Nene, wake up!" he panicked, his hands hovering over her trembling, pale shoulders. He gently shook her, but her head rolled back, completely unconscious from the overwhelming shock and massive trauma.
Panic seized his throat. "Damn it, stay with me! Don't you dare close your eyes!"
Realizing he couldn't move her without causing fatal blood loss, Itsuki scrambled to his feet and sprinted toward the blown-out front entrance of the shopping center, waving his good arm frantically at the blockade below.
"Medic! We need a medic in here now!" Itsuki screamed at the top of his lungs, his voice cracking with pure desperation. "Someone help her! She's bleedin' out!"
The next few hours passed in an agonizing blur of red sirens, flashing lights, and muffled commands from the emergency response teams. Itsuki barely remembered being checked by the paramedics or guided out of the cordoned-off district—his mind remained trapped back on that blood-stained marble floor.
Now, the chaotic noise of the city streets had dissolved into the suffocating silence of the hospital hallway.
Slumped in a metal-framed chair outside the operating room, Itsuki stared blankly at his trembling hands. The dried blood under his fingernails was the only proof that the nightmare had actually happened. The clock on the wall ticked endlessly, each second dragging on like an eternity while he waited for any word from behind the sealed doors.
Itsuki sat slouched in the rigid plastic chair, his knees spread wide and his arms hanging limp between them. His head hung low, wrapped in a foul, suffocating mood—it felt like the universe refused to give him a single second of peace. The only thing echoing in his ears was the dull, rhythmic beep of the heart monitor keeping Nene tethered to life on the other side of the wall.
"Itsuki..."
Takumi's voice broke through the sterile quiet. He came jogging down the hospital corridor before slowing his pace, stepping up to stand beside Itsuki's drained, battered frame.
"Anything from the doctors yet?" Takumi asked quietly, already knowing the horrific extent of Nene's injuries—and the sickening reality that she'd likely never walk again.
"No... nothin'," Itsuki muttered, unable to even lift his gaze to face his best friend. Still, he could feel Takumi's eyes locked onto the heavy wooden door where Nene lay resting.
"She's alive... but she's never gonna be able to walk again. That fucker tore out every last piece of her leg..." Itsuki rasped out, struggling to force the words past the lump in his throat. The reality was too brutal to articulate, but he didn't need to elaborate. Takumi already understood the nightmare.
"I dunno if she's gonna wake up anytime soon," Itsuki continued, his eyes slowly drifting up toward the door. "The doctors did whatever the hell they could... pretty much had to amputate what was left of it."
A heavy, suffocating silence settled over the corridor before Itsuki finally snapped.
"Shit!" he growled, slamming both fists violently against his thighs. "I was right fucking there! Why the hell did she have to do all of that just to pull some useless goddamn data?!"
Flashbacks of the nightmare kept violently replaying behind Itsuki's eyes—the tear of flesh, the spray of crimson, Nene's agonizing screams—refusing to leave him in peace no matter how hard he tried to shove them down.
"Sorry," Takumi said quietly.
Itsuki's head snapped up, his bloodshot eyes locking onto Takumi with a sharp glare. "The hell are you pullin' a 'sorry' for, man?"
Takumi uncrossed his arms, letting them drop limp against his sides as he finished his apology. "For not being there when you guys needed me."
Itsuki let out a heavy, bitter breath, forcing his eyes away from Takumi to stare back down at the floor. "You're sorry for absolute shit. Simple as that. You couldn't have done a damn thing anyway. Don't go puttin' this on yourself, or I swear I'll knock you the fuck out."
Takumi accepted Itsuki's words and let the subject drop, knowing there was no point in pushing it further. The two of them let the moment pass in heavy silence, the sterile hum of the corridor filling the space between them until Itsuki finally broke it.
"That thing I saw..."
Takumi shifted his gaze back onto him, waiting patiently for whatever Itsuki was about to unload.
"You already know what they are, don't you?" Itsuki muttered, his hands clenching into fists against his knees. "What are they really? You told me you fought one a while back."
Takumi let out a slow, heavy exhale before sitting down on the bench right beside him. Itsuki kept his eyes locked on him, desperately holding out hope for a real answer.
"Honestly... I still don't know much about them myself," Takumi confessed softly, staring straight ahead at the plain wall. "Someone I met gave me a quick rundown, but I'm still trying to wrap my head around it. From what I gather, these things are just distortions born from people's emotions."
"Distortions?" Itsuki scoffed bitterly, a harsh laugh escaping his throat. "That fuckin' ugly thing was made of emotions? You gotta be kiddin' me."
"I'm serious," Takumi said, leaning his elbows on his knees and staring down at his sneakers. "Extreme grief, anger, terror... when it builds up in a place and gets twisted by whatever corruption is spreading around Aoshima, it takes physical form. It distorts reality. That is why they do not make sense."
Itsuki squeezed his eyes shut, the phantom burn of yellow lightning still humming beneath his skin, right alongside the crushing weight of his shattered elbow. He opened his palm, staring at the calloused lines of his hand where the heavy iron bat had materialized out of thin air.
"Then what about... the other thing?" Itsuki asked, his voice dropping into a low, uneasy grit.
Takumi turned his head slightly. "What other thing?"
"The voice in my head, Takumi," Itsuki muttered, his gaze sharpening as he looked his friend dead in the eye. Blood from the corners of his eyes had dried into dark, crusty tracks on his face, but he didn't care enough to wipe them away. "When that monster had Nene cornered, time stopped. Everything turned black and white. And this... this entity spoke to me. It mocked me, called me helpless, and told me to claim the vengeance in my heart."
Takumi stayed quiet, his expression darkening as he listened intently.
"It gave me a weapon," Itsuki continued, his fingers curling into a tight fist. "A heavy iron bat wrapped in golden voltage. The second I grabbed it, the damn floor shattered and the ground shook like an earthquake. The voice called itself Strigidae."
Takumi let out a long breath, rubbing the back of his neck. "So you awakened one too."
Itsuki's brow furrowed. "Too? The hell do you mean too?"
"You are not the only one hearing voices or pulling weapons out of thin air, Itsuki," Takumi replied casually, though his tone carried a heavy edge of caution. "That was your own power. Your soul's response to the distortion—or whatever entity bonded with you in that moment. It feeds on your resolve. But listen to me..."
Takumi leaned closer, his eyes dead serious as he looked at Itsuki.
"That power... it takes a heavy toll. Look at you. You are practically falling apart just from swinging it once."
"I don't give a damn about the toll," Itsuki growled, his jaw tightening until his teeth clicked. "If that power is what it takes to crush those bastards so nobody else ends up like Nene, then I'll drag that bat through hell itself."
"Guess that's a good mindset," Takumi added, his eyes dropping to look down at his own palm. "Lexa told me they are called Binders. I guess a power that binds itself to your body and soul... but you should probably talk to her about it more. The academy practically has them all over the place—students crafting them or improving them."
Itsuki let out a sharp, breathless grunt, leaning back against the cold wall behind his chair. "Lexa, huh? Great. Just what I needed... another lecture from a top-tier student while my brain feels like it's gettin' fried from the inside out."
"She knows more about the mechanics than either of us," Takumi pointed out smoothly, closing his fist and resting his wrist on his thigh. "If you try to throw that bat around without understanding what it's actually doing to your body, you're going to end up in a bed right next to Nene."
The mention of Nene's name brought the heavy, suffocating weight right back into the air. Itsuki's glare softened, shifting back toward the closed ICU door. He stared at the dull brass handle, his fingers instinctively twitching as if still reaching for the cold, heavy iron grip of Strigidae.
"I don't need a damn lecture," Itsuki muttered softly, his voice losing its explosive edge and settling into a dark, quiet resolve. "I just need to know how to hit harder. Next time one of those distortions shows up... I ain't lettin' it walk away."
The quiet rustle of the door handle echoed through the silent hallway, breaking the heavy tension between them.
The double doors to the ICU swung open, and a tired-looking doctor in sea-green scrubs pulled off his surgical mask, letting it hang loosely around his neck. He wiped a thin sheen of sweat from his forehead with the back of his wrist before his eyes landed on Itsuki and Takumi.
Itsuki immediately pushed off the wall, standing up so fast his injured elbow shot a blinding flash of pain up his arm. "Doc... how is she?"
The doctor let out a long, weary sigh, looking between the two boys before giving a firm, reassuring nod. "She made it through the operation. Her vitals are stable, and the internal bleeding has been completely stopped. Nene is going to live."
A massive weight violently collapsed off Itsuki's chest, forcing a shaky, breathy gasp out of his mouth. Beside him, Takumi visibly relaxed, exhaling the tension he'd been holding since he stepped into the building.
"However..." the doctor's tone dropped into a somber, grave note as he held up a clipboard. "I need you both to be realistic about what comes next. The damage to her right leg was severe. The bone was pulverized beyond repair, and the soft tissue destruction left us with no alternative. The amputation below the knee was a complete success, but... she will never be able to walk on that leg again without a advanced prosthetic, and the recovery road ahead is going to be incredibly long and brutal."
Itsuki's knuckles turned bone-white as he clenched his hands, his teeth grinding together so hard his jaw ached. Hearing the cold, medical reality laid out in front of him made the nightmare feel twice as heavy.
"Can we see her?" Takumi asked, stepping forward to keep Itsuki grounded.
"Not right now," the doctor replied, offering a soft, sympathetic nod. "The anesthesia hasn't worn off, and her body went through extreme physical trauma. Right now, she's resting in room 304. We've got her on heavy pain medication and sedatives to keep her stable. I strongly suggest you two get yourselves cleaned up and rested. She won't be waking up until morning at the earliest."
The doctor gave them a polite nod before turning back toward the station to complete his charts, leaving the two boys alone once again in the quiet corridor.
To be continued...