The helicopter cut through the night, its rotors slicing the air with a rhythmic hum.
Below, the battlefield was still settling—
Debris and dust swirling in the dying wind.
Ren exhaled, his stance sharp, his body tense with the lingering echoes of battle.
Yumi’s fingers twitched at her sides.
Ryuko rolled his shoulders.
Akira’s smirk was faint but ever-present.
A single figure stepped out.
His coat billowed slightly in the wind, but his posture was rexed.
Casual.
As if he had just arrived for a stroll.
One hand rested zily on the hilt of his bde—
the other adjusting his wrist.
Yasuke.
His sharp gaze swept over them all, his expression unreadable.
Then, ever so slightly—
he smirked.
“Took you all two months to crawl back here? And they call me zy.”
?
Watari exhaled, rubbing the back of his neck.
“Yeah, well, time flies when you’re not on an evil-sanctioned mission.”
Akira scoffed.
“Really? That’s your opener?”
Watari shrugged.
“Would you rather I comment on his outfit?”
Yumi, arms crossed, narrowed her eyes.
“We’ve fought you before. We know how this goes.”
Yasuke tilted his head slightly, intrigued.
“Oh? Then you should also know how this ends.”
Watari tightened his grip on his bde.
He wouldn’t be reckless—he knew Yasuke was on a different level.
Still, something about his presence felt… different.
Calcuted.
Akira stepped forward, rolling his shoulders.
“You do realize you’re outnumbered, right? Five against one. Not exactly a smart py.”
Yasuke’s smirk didn’t fade.
He sighed, shaking his head.
“Outnumbered? You misunderstand.”
A slow, deliberate pause.
Then—
“I’m not here to fight all of you.”
?
Silence.
Watari frowned.
”…Then what the hell are you here for?”
Yasuke lifted a single hand.
And then—
He snapped his fingers.
The helicopter behind him shuddered violently.
Then it screamed.
Metal shrieked as if it were alive, twisting and writhing like something caught in an unseen vice.
The body of the helicopter buckled inward,
steel warping, melting, burning all at once.
The rotors snapped from their base, sent flying into the night like broken limbs.
Gss shattered, exploding outward in jagged shards—
dissolving before they could even hit the ground.
And then—
A growl.
Low.
Guttural.
Unnatural.
From the ruin of the helicopter—
it emerged.
A beast.
No—
A monstrosity.
?Tenzan.
His body was barely human now.
His form was bloated with unnatural muscle,
his limbs twisted in ways that defied anatomy.
His skin had darkened, veins bulging and pulsating with raw, uncontrolled energy.
His eyes—
His eyes weren’t eyes anymore.
They were just pits.
Empty, hollow voids, glowing with a sickly, unnatural light.
The squad recoiled instinctively.
This wasn’t a person anymore.
Watari took a half step back, his breath caught in his throat.
Ryuko, usually unshaken, narrowed his eyes.
“Even with the level up… I can’t make my shadows into something like that.”
A drop of saliva hit the ground,
sizzling against the concrete.
Tenzan’s jaws snapped open,
drool pooling at his feet.
His breathing was ragged, uneven,
his body thrumming with something foul.
A flicker of movement—
Then—
Watari was gone.
The squad barely had time to process it.
One second, he was standing beside them—
the next—
A blur.
A gust of wind.
And he was missing.
Yumi’s eyes darted around.
“What—where’s Watari?!”
Ren turned, scanning.
Then—
They saw it.
The rooftop.
Yasuke stood.
His bde still sheathed.
His expression bored.
And across from him—
Watari.
Yumi tensed, about to move—
But then—
The growl deepened.
A low rumble that made the air shudder.
More saliva.
More steam.
Akira’s smirk was gone.
“Not good.”
Yumi clenched her fists, gritting her teeth.
She wanted to go.
She needed to go.
But—
They had to handle the thing in front of them first.
?On the rooftop, Yasuke exhaled.
His fingers flexed slightly around the hilt of his sword.
“I said I wasn’t here to fight all of you but YOU! You should have died back then.”
Watari rolled his shoulders, inhaling sharply.
No jokes now.
No quips.
He steadied his grip.
The wind whispered.
?CUT TO BLACK.
