Chapter 3: Before the Waking (03)

The moment the word left her lips, Ayane’s knees buckled.

Before she could hit the hard concrete, Akiro dropped his grocery bags with a clatter and lunged forward, catching her upper body and cupping his hand beneath her head just in time to keep it from striking the pavement.

"Ayane!" Akiro cried out, his voice cracking with sudden panic.

He gently tapped her cheek, shaking her shoulder. "Ayane, wake up! Ayane!" There was no response. Her eyes remained tightly shut, her breathing shallow and faint.

Panic gripped his chest. Without a second thought, Akiro scooped her up into his arms, bridal-style, and spun around. Remembering the multi-story hospital they had just walked past minutes ago, he sprinted back down the sidewalk as fast as his legs could carry her through the twilight air.

The sterile white hallway of the hospital smelled faintly of antiseptic and old paper.

Akiro sat hunched forward on a cushioned waiting sofa, his hands locked tightly together, his knuckles stark white.

Creeeak.

A heavy door swung open down the corridor. A middle-aged woman in a doctor’s white coat stepped out, her face drawn, pale, and utterly exhausted. It was Ayane’s mother.

Akiro bolted up from the sofa the second he saw her. "Doctor... Is Ayane okay?"

Ayane’s mother looked at him, her eyes shining with unshed tears. She took a slow, trembling breath. "Thank you... thank you for bringing my daughter here so quickly."

"Please," Akiro urged, his voice cracking, "what happened to her?"

The doctor squeezed her eyes shut, a sob finally breaking past her lips. "She suffered another brain hemorrhage... A cerebral hemorrhage. She had a mild attack once before, and after spending a week under strict observation here, we thought she was finally recovering and making progress. But now..."

She buried her face in her hands, her shoulders shaking as she wept openly.

Akiro felt the blood drain entirely from his face. He stepped forward quickly, gently guiding the grieving mother over to a nearby chair so she could sit down, her hands still covering her face.

Leaving her to collect herself, Akiro quietly pushed open the door to Ayane’s recovery room and slipped inside.

The room was dim, illuminated only by the rhythmic, soft glow of the heart monitor beside the bed.

Ayane lay motionless against the crisp white pillows, her face pale, her dark hair splayed out like ink against the sheets. Her blood pressure read slightly low on the monitor, but stable. Yet, she remained fast asleep, trapped behind closed eyes.

Akiro walked slowly to the side of the bed.

He reached out with a trembling hand, resting his fingers gently over the back of her cold hand.

"Please wake up soon, Ayane..." Akiro whispered, his voice trembling as tears stung the corners of his eyes. "There's... there's so much I still need to tell you."

He stared at her quiet, still face for a long, agonizing moment, feeling utterly helpless.

The front door of Akiro’s apartment clicked open.

He stepped inside, kicking off his shoes with heavy, dragging movements.

"Akiro?" his mother called out from the kitchen, wiping her hands on a towel as she walked into the dining area. "Where have you been? You were gone so long—"

She stopped talking when she saw his face. Akiro walked with leaden, heavy steps straight past the hallway, his eyes fixed on the floor, heading directly toward his bedroom door.

His mother hurried over, stepping up and placing a warm hand gently on his shoulder. "Akiro, what's wrong? What happened?"

Akiro didn't turn around. Keeping his gaze locked on the closed wood of his bedroom door, his voice came out hollow and broken. "A classmate of mine... a friend... suffered a brain hemorrhage."

His mother’s breath caught in her throat, her eyes widening in profound shock.

Akiro reached out, twisting the knob of his bedroom door and stepping halfway inside the dark, quiet room.

"Akiro—wait, how is she now?" his mother asked anxiously from the hallway.

Akiro turned his head slightly toward her, his voice barely a whisper. "I can't say anything yet..."

Thud.

He pulled the door shut firmly behind him, plunging himself into silence.

Inside his dark room, Akiro slid down the side of his bed until he was sitting flat on the floor, his knees pulled up to his chest.

Through the glass of his bedroom window, pale moonlight spilled across the floorboards, casting long, ghostly shadows. He stared blankly out at the night sky.

“I was in the sixth grade when Ayane transferred to our school,” Akiro whispered to himself, his voice echoing quietly in the empty room. “She was always different from everyone else... so bright, so untouchable. I don't even know when I started falling in love with her. I always wanted to tell her how I felt. But I was always too terrified... terrified that she would get mad, or worse... that she would push me out of her life forever.”

He kept his eyes fixed on the moon, watching the pale light filter through the glass.

Slowly, the overwhelming exhaustion of the day caught up with him. His eyelids grew heavier and heavier.

With a soft sigh, his head tilted sideways against the side of his bed, and a single tear slipped down his cheek, catching the moonlight before falling to the floor.

Drop.

The moment the tear hit the ground, reality dissolved.

In the dense, shadowed primeval forest of the alternate realm, Akiro and Yuto stood side-by-side on the mossy earth, their weapons drawn and breathing heavily.

Just seconds earlier, the colossal, armored rhinoceros beast had slammed its massive foreleg into the ground, sending a violent shockwave that threw them through the air. Bruised, battered, and nursing aching limbs, they braced themselves as the towering beast let out a deafening roar and charged straight toward them.

Akiro and Yuto leaped apart at the last possible second, darting around giant ancient trunks to slash at the beast's flanks. But their blades merely glanced off its thick, scarred hide, leaving barely a scratch.

The beast whipped around, swinging its massive head and swatting Yuto away like an insect. Yuto crashed hard into a tree trunk, groaning in pain.

Before the rhinoceros could trample him, a streak of motion dropped from the dense canopy above.

It was Hoshino Yui. Clad in rugged leather battle gear, she landed squarely on the beast’s back with cat-like agility. Quick as lightning, she unspooled a thick, reinforced rope, wrapping it violently around the creature's snout and yanking hard to restrict its jaws.

"Now!" she screamed into the wind.

Reacting instantly, Yuto—recovering from the impact—hurled a grappling rope upward, catching a thick overhead branch. He swung through the air like a pendulum, driving his blade downward into the beast's shoulder before dropping back to the dirt.

The beast thrashed wildly, trying to buck the girl off its back, but another figure dropped from the trees behind them.

It was Takaham Haruto, a young man of their exact age group. He swung in on a trailing vine, using the momentum to plunge a massive, heavy iron spear deep into the thick muscle of the beast’s back.

The creature roared in agony, rearing up on its hind legs and shaking the entire forest floor. Haruto tumbled across the dirt, sliding to a stop before smoothly pushing himself back up to his feet, gripping his weapon tightly.

Stepping forward through the dust was Kamijo Hayato. He carried the unmistakable aura of a battle-hardened team captain, radiating a calm, terrifying focus despite his youth.

In his grip was an immensely thick, broad greatsword.

Hayato spun the massive blade in a fluid arc, lowering its tip toward the earth. As the metal scraped near the ground, bright, volatile purple particles began to swirl violently around the steel, crackling with raw, condensed energy.

With an explosive burst of speed, Hayato launched himself into the air, bringing his glowing broadsword down in a devastating vertical arc straight into the beast's thick neck.

Slash.

A torrent of dark, thick blood erupted from the wound. The beast let out one final, agonizing gurgle before crashing heavily into the dirt. Hayato landed smoothly atop its motionless carcass, casually pulling his blade free as the purple particles faded into the air.

Akiro and Yuto stared at the scene in absolute shock, their jaws slightly slack.

"Whoa..." Akiro breathed.

The three newcomers walked over. Yui wiped a smear of dirt from her cheek, looking down at the massive creature. "This one was huge."

"Yeah, but it had to die," Hayato replied coolly, sheathing his massive sword behind his back.

He turned his gaze toward Akiro and Yuto, looking them over. "What group are you two with?"

Akiro stepped up slightly, eyeing the seasoned fighters. "We're from the Wolfs. What about you guys? What team are you from?"

Hayato narrowed his eyes slightly and crossed his arms. "We're from the Demons."

Akiro and Yuto exchanged stunned glances. Demons?

Before they could process it, Hayato offered his name, gesturing casually toward the young woman beside him. "I'm Hayato, team captain of this unit, and this is—"

"And I'm Yui, this handsome man's girlfriend!" Yui chimed in instantly with a bright, teasing grin, stepping right up beside him.

Hayato shot her a brief, serious, and slightly embarrassed look, his cheeks flushing with a faint shade of shyness before he cleared his throat and looked away.

Stepping forward next, Haruto offered a nod of his own. "I'm Haruto."

"Can... can these beasts really grow to this size?" Akiro asked, staring at the colossal carcass.

"They're getting bigger every day, and nobody knows why," Hayato said, stepping closer and extended a hand directly toward Akiro. "Would you two like to team up with us?"

Akiro blinked in surprise, glanced over at his friend, who gave an encouraging nod, and then grasped Hayato's hand firmly. "Yeah, sure—"

BZZZZT.

A sudden, agonizing spike of pain flared deep inside Akiro's skull—a sharp, blinding headache that felt like a hot iron driving into his brain.

"Gah—!" Akiro gasped, his eyes rolling back as his knees buckled and he collapsed straight onto the dirt.

Snap.

In the real world, Akiro’s eyes snapped open.

His heart pounded wildly against his ribs as he lay slumped against the side of his bed in the dark room.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

"Akiro! Akiro, open the door!" His mother’s frantic voice echoed from the hallway, muffled through the wood. "Are you okay in there, Akiro?!"

Akiro sucked in a sharp breath, blinking away the heavy fog of sleep. "Yeah... yeah, Mom, I'm fine!"

"Your phone!" his mother shouted back through the door, her voice laced with worry. "Your phone has been ringing nonstop for the past hour!"

Akiro froze. He turned his head toward his bedside table. His smartphone was lit up brightly, vibrating against the wood with a relentless incoming call from an unknown number.

Trembling slightly, Akiro reached up, grabbed the phone, pressed it to his ear, and swiped to answer.

"Hello, who is this?" Akiro demanded, his voice breathless and rough.

Two to three seconds passed in complete, suffocating silence on the line.

Then, wide awake, Akiro's eyes flew wide open in absolute terror.

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