Chapter 4: Prices to Pay and Consequences to Reap
Scene 1: The Awakening
Ash stirred beneath the sterile lights of the med bay.
(My head hurts…)
Flashes of memory crashed through his mind—the impact, the blood, the final headbutt—each one dull and muffled under the fog of recovery.
He tried to move. His body screamed in protest.
Then he noticed her.
A head resting by the side of his bed. Quiet. Motionless.
“Aoi?!”
(When did she get here?)
As if reacting to his thoughts, the girl stirred.
She blinked slowly, then locked eyes with him.
“H-Hey Aoi…” Ash said with an awkward grin, rubbing the back of his neck.
Without a word, she launched herself at him, tackling him in a hug, nearly knocking the wind from his lungs.
“I’m glad you’re awake,” she whispered, trembling.
Ash, feeling her shake, gently wrapped his arms around her.
“I’m sorry to have worried you, Aoi…”
She pulled back.
And SMACK.
“OOUGH?!”
Ash recoiled, grabbing his head.
“What was that for?!”
SMACK.
Another hit landed before he could react.
“OWW—STOP THAT!”
But his protests died in his throat when he saw her—tears streaming down her face, fists clenched, voice cracking.
“Idiot… idiot… stupid idiot” she muttered, wiping her eyes.
Ash reached toward her—
But froze mid-motion.
“Promise me…” she said, eyes locked onto his.
“Promise me you won’t fight again…”
Ash lowered his hand. The silence was heavy.
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He looked away.
“…You know I can’t,” he said quietly.
“If I stop, the disease will keep growing. You’ll die.”
“WHAT WOULD IT MATTER IF YOU DIE IN THE PROCESS?!” she shouted, her sobs spilling out with every word.
“Every time you leave the hospital, I sit there wondering… wondering if you’ll ever come back.”
Ash smiled sadly.
“A bit of blood and pain won’t kill me,” he said.
“And if it does… well, my life is a small price to pay for yours.”
Aoi’s expression shattered.
With a sudden push, she pinned him back to the bed.
“DAMN IT, STOP SAYING THAT!!” she screamed.
“I don’t want to live in a world without my one and only family…”
Ash stared into her eyes—raw, broken, pleading.
“So promise me… just promise me you won’t die…”
A long silence.
Then—
Ash nodded.
“I won’t die… not until you’re cured.
Promise.”
Outside the room, the old man with the bionic arm stood quietly in the hallway, a faint smile on his face. He turned and disappeared into the shadows.
Scene 2: Elsewhere… Chaos in Z-City
BOOM!!
The camera cuts to the heart of Z-City, Sector-8’s capital. An entire city block lies in ruin—fire, mangled concrete, and smoking corpses litter the streets.
Then with another powerful explosion, a skyscraper crumbles like paper under an unseen force, collapsing in on itself, rocking the entire district.
Amidst the devastation…
A single figure stands at the epicenter—unscathed. Calm. Untouchable.
One hand wrapped around the throat of a partially transformed werewolf, smoke rising from the rubble around them.
“If only you had followed the rules,” the man said coldly, his voice deep and razor-sharp.
“Like the obedient mutt you were bred to be…”
The werewolf snarled, shifting slowly back into human form—bloodied, burned.
[Mayor Howard Benjamin—leader of Z-City, manager of Sector-8, and a Homo Chimera: Werewolf.]
“You and I both know…” Howard coughed, “I was never one to lie down and take blatant disrespect.” He said before spitting on the towering man.
Then—
BOOM!!
A second explosion boomed across the street, the powerful shockwave sending him flying across the ruins, smashing through multiple buildings before slamming through twisted rebar and crushed vehicles.
Metal spikes skewered through his limbs, pinning him to a mangled wall.
From the smoke and fire emerged the man in the dark suit—
[Cosmos von Draco.
Warlord of the Western Region.
Homo Arcanus: CLASSIFIED.]
He walked towards Howard, dust swirling around his pristine coat.
“I’ll give you one last chance,” Cosmos said.
“Who pushed you to act so foolishly?”
Howard, choking on blood, laughed bitterly.
“I’ve lost everything…”
“I damn you and that bastard to eternal hell…”
Just as those words left his mouth, a powerful blast tore through his chest.
His body slumped.
Silent.
Dead.
Cosmos stared at the corpse for a moment, face unreadable.
Then he growled—
“Agent-7,” he said.
From the shadows, the man in black appeared and bowed low.
“Announce the Blood-Moon Gathering.
Summon every manager and coach across the Eastern continent.”
“Your wish is my command, my lord’’
agent-7 said before vanishing into the darkness whence he came.
He walked past Howard’s corpse, moving through the wreckage.
As the dust began to settle, hundreds of men in black bowed silently on either side of his path.
At the end of the line stood two figures different from the rest:
(Scene 3: Shadows of the West)
“It’s been a while since the last gathering,” said the man in the red suit, eyes glowing faintly. His shirt was unbuttoned, crimson hair gleaming like fire.
Adam Octarius – Second-in-command of the Western Region.
Homo Bellator: CLASSIFIED.
“It’s about time we reminded these insects of their place,” said the man beside him, calm and cold in a grey suit and fluttering doctor’s coat.
Antares Asclepius – Third-in-command of the Western Region.
Homo Arcanus: CLASSIFIED.
Cosmos didn’t look back as he issued another cold command:
“Erase every fighter in Sector-8. None are to see the sunlight tomorrow.”
“Then create a new batch by end of day. I want replacements before dusk three days from now.”
They bowed slightly and vanished into the smoke.
Narrator:
And thus, on that night…
An entire sector was wiped from the map.
The first of many to come.
The world was changing again.
And somewhere in a small, quiet med bay…
A boy with golden eyes slept beside the girl he fought to keep alive.
Unaware of the storm rising just beyond the horizon.
A storm he had caused!!.
End of Chapter 4
