Boots splashed through rain-slick pavement as units ran past shuttered shops and iron storefronts. Searchlights cut across alleyways. Orders echoed, overlapping, dissolving into noise.
Captain Arell moved fast.
From the ground level, the Iron Wall towered above him like a scar in the sky. He stopped before a tall woman clad in reinforced crimson armor, her physique powerful, her presence immovable.
Suddenly a screen popped up, Commander Marza of the Amazons.
Arell bowed deeply.
"Commander."
Marza's eyes never left the city.
"Chief Arell, I'm calling to get the status on the parasites."
"My apologies, my lady," Aral said. "It's been a weeks since the atatck on the iron wall althoguh the honor students have been killing the parasites they are multiplying fast."
Marza's jaw tightened.
"Of course they did" she said. "Rest assure the matter will be taken care of, for now assit the Honors students."
Arell eyes widened "The honor students, those are the elite fighters on the isalnd gifted with Abi arts."
Marza "Yes but we still need to be clear on the threat, lets notify the public on safety messures."
Arell "Yes ma'am."
Amber Alert sirens pulsed softly at every street corner, steady, rhythmic, almost gentle.
Fear had learned to whisper.
Soldiers searched through the night, combing rooftops and sewer entrances, scanning abandoned factories and collapsed housing blocks.
They found nothing.
By morning, the sun rose weak and pale over the Iron Wall District.
Burajiru walked through the streets as people hurried past him.
Faces tight. Eyes darting. Conversations clipped short.
He stopped beside an old abandoned house near a dumpster, knelt, and set down a small metal bowl already waiting there. From his coat, he pulled a dented can of fish and poured it in.
A mangy, one-eared stray cat emerged cautiously.
Then rushed forward, devouring the food.
Burajiru watched quietly. His eyes were sunken, darkened depression. He wasn't scared.
He was tired in a way sleep couldn't fix.
"My mind is so foggy," he murmured. "Everything feels... heavy."
Kyra licked his hand, then tugged gently at his shirt with its teeth.
"What, hey?" Burajiru asked.
Kyra meowed again and bumped its head against him.
He exhaled softly.
"...Fine. Just a short one."
He lay back in the grass beside the house. Kyra curled against his side, purring faintly.
For a moment, the world stopped grinding.
Dragon Vine High-District School
The classroom buzzed with panic.
No one studied. No one focused.
Students whispered, cried, laughed nervously. One boy stared at the door as if expecting it to burst open. Another filmed himself, pretending to shake while glancing at the camera.
The teacher sighed, rubbing her temples.
"Alright, listen up. If you haven't already gotten the alert, there may be a parasite on the loose."
The room stiffened.
"Yes, parasites eat humans," he continued flatly. "We're ordered not to be alone outside under any circumstances. Don't ask me why. If a parasite wants to eat you, you're probably screwed anyway. Maybe two people is better than one."
A weak laugh passed through the room.
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"Coping mechanisms," he muttered. "That's all this is."
Burajiru sat in the back, staring out the window.
Smoke rose from the Wall factories, thick and endless.
He felt the weight of the city pressing down on his chest.
"Parasites consume people," he thought. "They live to eat."
His eyes narrowed.
"But is that really any different from us?"
He clenched his jaw.
"We consume hatred. We consume lies. Those on top consume greed... and those at the bottom consume the philosophy of the greed."
His gaze shifted.
Plum Avastma Grimmer sat in the far end of the class room away from the students.
While others trembled or pretended not to, she stood still, back straight, eyes focused. Calm. Present. She coudln't help but wonder how much time she had left to live.
Real.
Burajiru watched her not from attraction, but curiousity. His Afro lifted.
Is that the white haired girl? Damn, she looks cooked.
She carried something broken.
Something that felt like unfufilled. He closed his his and drifted into a deep sleep.
The class turned around to the sound of him snoring.
Later, Burajiru walked alone.
Bushes rustled.
Eyes followed.
He returned to the area of the abandoned house and placed more food down.
The city fell silent.
Amber Alert lights shifted from yellow to red.
Burajiru carries a bag in his hand "Hey Kyra, it's lunch my break, I bought you some food."
The air changed.
Inside the alleyway nearby.
The parasite emerged.
Twice the size of a car. Pale. Wet. Smiling with too many teeth.
Kyra hissed, scrambling back, but iron walls erupted around them, sealing the alley shut.
The parasite chuckled.
Burajiru casually walked pass it, stared at it calmly. The parasite watched BUrajiru in consfusion.
"So this is the parasite everyone's afraid of."
He stepped in front of the Kyra.
The creature leaned closer, drool spilling onto the pavement.
"Darn it."
A memory surged.
His mother, standing over him, fear in her eyes.
"I remember being a kid," Burajiru whispered. "Always afraid, my own mother was like a parasite."
His hand tightened into a fist.
"I hate that feeling."
Something ignited behind his eyes, cold, silver-red.
"They want you to be afraid," he said softly, kneeling beside the cat. "But why should we fear bullies?"
He patted Kyra's head.
"I hate bullies."
The air vibrated.
Red Abi flooded the alley.
"Don't be afraid," Burajiru whispered.
"Imagine what you truly are Kyra, go fourth and conquer world."
Light exploded.
Kyra transformed, expanding, armor forming, fur crystallizing into radiant needles. Its roar shattered the silence, shaking the Iron Wall itself.
IMAGI KYRA
Burajiru stood at the center of the light.
No longer just a student.
No longer just tired.
He had authored something new.
Her eyes burned electric blue. When she roared, the sound didn't just echo, it rang.
The Iron Wall trembled.
Burajiru stood at the center of the light.
No longer just a student.
No longer just tired.
He had authored something new.
Kyra reared back, her form continued to evolve as energy compressed inside her throat. Lightning coiled inward, folding again and again until the air screamed under the pressure.
A thunder beam formed, pure, blinding, screaming with voltage.
Burajiru raised his hand calmly.
"This is your cue to run."
The parasite stared.
Not in fear.
In confusion.
It had never seen Abi shaped like this, never seen imagination weaponized with intent. It turned, limbs scrambling, trying to flee.
Too late.
Kyra unleashed the blast.
The beam erased sound first.
Then space.
Then the parasite.
There was no impact. A mini explosion made of pure thunder.
When the light faded, nothing remained, not flesh, not residue, not even shadow. The alley was clean, as if the parasite had never existed at all.
Silence returned, thick and stunned.
Kyra lowered her head, the lightning along her armor slowly dimming.
Burajiru walked up to her and placed a hand between the armored plates, scratching gently where fur still remained.
"Good girl."
Kyra rumbled softly, tail flicking, thunder crackling once like a satisfied sigh.
Burajiru straightened.