The Gap and the Shadow.

Yokota Air Base was crumbling piece by piece. The sound of the Vulcan machine guns, which minutes before had been a constant roar, was now intermittent. One by one, the automated turrets stopped rotating, their barrels glowing red-hot from the heat, or simply clicked empty. Others were torn from their mounts by the brute force of Oni that had managed to cross the moat.

More and more Kijin were falling. The defensive line was retreating meter by meter, staining the wet asphalt with human and monster blood.

In the Command Room, Kaori Watanabe felt her brain was about to explode. Her fingers moved at an inhuman speed over the holographic panels, redirecting power, sealing security bulkheads to isolate lost sectors, and sacrificing empty zones to buy seconds. But there was one variable her mind couldn't solve. An incomplete equation that terrified her more than the horde at her gates.

The Regent still hadn't appeared.

Thermal scanners, motion sensors, the remaining drones... nothing. The enemy leader had vanished into the black rain. Kaori knew a general doesn't disappear without a purpose. If he wasn't attacking the main gate, he was flanking. And if he was flanking, his most likely target was the head of the snake: either herself or her best warriors.

"Natasha is out there alone..." Kaori murmured. A bad premonition tightened her chest, a visceral intuition that overrode logic.

She activated the private channel. "Ken!" Her voice sounded urgent in the boy's communicator. "I need you to go after Natasha! Now!"

"Kaori?" Ken responded between combat pants. "We're a little busy here!"

"Forget the wall defense!" she shouted. "The Regent has disappeared! I'm certain he's not just trying to destroy the base; he's aiming to pick you off one by one. Natasha is isolated in the city. If the Regent finds her while she's fighting the other general... she'll die. Go and watch her back!"

In the northern sector, Kyosuke, who was cutting down multiple creatures while covering a group of medics, heard the transmission. "Listen to her, kid!" Kyosuke chimed in over the radio. "Get moving! I'll handle holding this position. As soon as we clear this sector, I'll catch up."

"Ken!" Shinji's shout came through. "We'll cover the Commander!"

"Bring that reckless idiot back in one piece, got it?!" Yamato added, driving his spear into an enemy. "Don't come back without her!"

Ken, who had just kicked down a Tengu with a spinning kick, nodded, though no one could see it. "Understood."

He sheathed his knife and ran toward one of the concrete pillars holding up the destroyed viaduct near the perimeter wall. With a shout of effort, he focused energy into his legs and made an impressive leap, scaling the structure until he reached the top edge of the retaining wall.

He looked down. The outside was hell. The black rain poured down in sheets, and the ground was covered with creatures trying to climb. If he jumped there, they'd tear him apart before he hit the ground. There were too many.

Ken hesitated for a second, searching for a landing spot. But before he could decide, three bright flashes illuminated the darkness below.

Three explosions detonated in the middle of the group of creatures blocking his path. It wasn't fire; it was a shockwave of concentrated plasma. The monsters were flung aside, creating a perfect circle of cleared ground.

Amidst the smoke, a small figure waved at him. It was Kazuha. The kid with the anime stickers. He was carrying a modified grenade launcher almost as big as he was.

"Commander Kyosuke said you'd need a hand!" Kazuha yelled, his voice barely audible over the rain. "Go! I'll cover you!"

Ken smiled. That kid had guts. "Thanks, brat!" Ken shouted and leapt into the void.

He landed in the crater Kazuha had opened, rolled to cushion the fall, and shot off at full speed, taking advantage of the confusion of the stunned monsters. The gap closed behind him almost instantly, with Kazuha firing furiously to keep the beasts away from the wall, but Ken was already out.

He ran toward the city, plunging into the dark streets, guided by the same instinct that had helped him survive in the forest of glass. The rain struck his face, mixing with sweat. Hold on, Natasha. I'm coming.

Ken moved quickly, jumping over overturned cars and debris. But what Ken didn't know, what his enhanced senses were only just beginning to whisper to him like an itch on the back of his neck, was that he wasn't alone.

Above, on the roof of a half-collapsed corporate building, a figure watched his sprint. The black rain evaporated upon touching his armor before it could even wet it. That creature followed the boy's movement with patience.

The Regent hadn't gone after Natasha. He had been waiting for the more interesting prey to leave its hiding place.

The samurai took a step forward and, without making a sound, leapt to the next building, following Ken from the heights, invisible as death itself.