Chapter 2: The Boy Given a Name, and the Roar That Split Tokyo

The next morning, Miyuki placed a stack of folded clothes on the table.

The boy blinked at them with a puzzled expression.

“What is this? Is it… food?”

Miyuki’s shoulders sagged.

“No, it’s not food. It’s for wearing. Clothes. You wear them.”

She sighed again, feeling strangely like a mother teaching a toddler how to dress for the first time.

Eventually, he put on the clothes—clumsily, but successfully. Miyuki crossed her arms, eyeing him thoughtfully. The boy still didn’t have a name.

“A good name for you… hmm…”

Suddenly, she recalled an old masked-hero movie she used to watch.
The protagonist’s name resounded in her memory.

Nagumo Yoruaki.

She snapped her fingers.

“How about that name? Do you like it?”

The boy brightened immediately.

“Nagumo…? Yes! I like it! Then my name is Nagumo!”

He said it with such excitement that Miyuki couldn’t help but smile.

Miyuki decided to take Nagumo around Tokyo to help him get used to the world.
Naturally, people stared. A lot.

“Look, they look like a couple.”
“Man, that guy’s lucky. She’s gorgeous. I’m jealous already.”

Miyuki heard all of it. She ignored all of it.

Nagumo, however, paid attention only to one thing—a vending machine.
He watched a man buy a drink and his eyes sparkled with childlike wonder.

Without warning—

“I want that!”

He sprinted across the street like an excited kid—
WITHOUT looking left or right.

Car brakes screeched.
Drivers yelled.
Miyuki bowed repeatedly.

“I’m so sorry! He… he has amnesia!”

Nagumo stood in front of the vending machine, staring intensely.

“Mister! I want one drink! Please give me one!”

Silence.

He shook the machine.

“HEY! GIVE ME A DRINK!”

Miyuki rushed over and smacked his hand.

“You don’t yell at a machine! You put coins in—like this.”

The moment the drink dropped, Nagumo gasped as if witnessing magic.

“IT WORKED!”

She held her face. This boy would be the death of her.

Sumika greeted them at the door, her eyes widening.

“Miyuki-chan… I didn’t know you already had such a handsome boyfriend.”

Miyuki groaned.

“Don’t say weird things. He’s not my boyfriend.”

Nagumo blinked innocently.

“Boyfriend? Is that food?”

Sumika stared.

“…Miyuki, what’s wrong with him? Is he stupid?”

Miyuki quickly explained everything that happened the day before.

Sumika gasped.

“Then his family might be searching for him! Poor guy…”

Miyuki exhaled tiredly.

“Yeah… I feel like I’ve suddenly become a mother.”

They finally reached the injured attendant. Miyuki activated her healing magic, enhanced with enchanted seaweed. The wound closed rapidly, and the servant stood up, fully healed.

Sumika bowed deeply.

“Miyuki, as thanks… will you have dinner with us?”

“I’d rather not. I don’t want to cause trouble.”

“It’s not trouble! Please—let me repay you.”

Then she frowned.

“Wait… where’s Nagumo?”

Both froze.

Nagumo was gone.

Servants scrambled to search the house.
Minutes later, one came running breathlessly.

“Lady Sumika! Lord Nagumo was seen heading toward central Tokyo!”

“WHAT?!”

Miyuki bolted out the door, Sumika close behind.

Screams filled the air.
Emergency alarms blared across the city.

Goblin units with crude armor rampaged through the streets.
Four massive Ogres roared, shaking the buildings.

The TUARF—Tactical Unit Advanced Reaction Forces—arrived in armored vehicles.

“This is Commander Amanai! TUARF units moving to central Tokyo, over!”

Sena Amanai, their commander—a woman with black-red hair and brown eyes—stepped out in full advanced armor.

“Target identified! Open fire!”

Bullets tore through the goblins.
But the Ogres struck back, smashing soldiers aside like toys.

“All units, fall back! FALL BACK! DA—AARRGHH—!”

Another soldier was crushed.

Sena scanned the chaos—until her comm device crackled.

“Commander! A rift detected in a nearby alley!”

She sprinted toward it.

There—
she saw him.

A young man with black hair and glowing golden eyes, standing before a black portal…
absorbing it with his right hand.

Sena raised her pistol.

“HEY YOU! HANDS UP!”

Nagumo turned his head toward her.

“You should leave. I’m… saving them.”

Sena faltered.

“What—”

A blue-skinned Ogre ambushed her, sending her crashing into an abandoned car. Pain shot through her arm—it was broken.

“Damn… so this is how I die.”

The Ogre lifted its massive arm—

BANG!

A bullet pierced its skin.
Nagumo had shot it.

The monster, enraged, lunged at him.
Nagumo dodged with movements Sena recognized instantly.

Reflexes. Precision.
Like a trained warrior.
Like a hero.

He grabbed one of her grenades.

“W–wait! What are you doing?!”

Nagumo shoved the grenade into the Ogre’s mouth.

BOOOOM—!

The beast exploded into chunks.

Behind Sena, goblins charged—

Nagumo shot them cleanly, without hesitation.

Sena stared in disbelief.

“Impossible… A civilian with skills like that… even warriors can’t move like this…”

She swallowed.

“W-what’s your name?”

Nagumo wiped the dust from his face.

“My name is Nagumo. Nagumo Yoruaki. Hoshizora Miyuki gave me that name.”

Sena stiffened.

“So… that Miyuki found him. No wonder…”

She looked up.

He was gone.

Disappeared.

She let out a shaky breath.

She was still alive… because of him.

Miyuki and Sumika fought back-to-back, cutting down armored goblins.

“Nagumo! Where are you?! Please be safe!”
Miyuki’s voice trembled.

Sumika grinned despite the chaos.

“Hey! Think of this as training, Miyuki!”

They slashed their way through the horde—
unaware of the shadow forming above the tallest building in the district.

A giant rift.
Black.
Pulsating.
Growing.

Waiting.

Watching.

And something enormous began to crawl out of it.