Chapter 65 - Ryota NakamuraHollow NightThe whole world was going to hell.

  Explosions were bsting off like fireworks at a demolition derby, the sky was clogged with smoke and ash, and every breath felt like I was choking on a lungful of dust. I crouched behind what was left of some wall—well, more like a pile of rubble now—my hands on my knees, trying to catch my breath. My chest was heaving, my legs were shaking, and my brain was absolutely fried.

  The others were out there somewhere. Fighting. Bleeding. Maybe dying. And here I was—hiding behind a wall like some useless benchwarmer who got shoved into the game without knowing the damn rules.

  What the hell was I supposed to do?

  I’d been useless ever since Reaper showed up. Daisuke and them went full nuclear on each other, tearing up everything in their path like a pair of titans out of some monster movie. Every punch, every explosion—they turned the whole area into this terrifying warzone where even breathing felt dangerous. I couldn’t get anywhere near it. Just standing close to the shockwaves made me feel like my bones were gonna crack apart.

  Everyone else was scattered. Eiji was with Mizuko, Junko was somewhere with Kozuki, and Arthur was chasing after the second-year rep who’d bolted. And me? I was here. Stuck. Doing jack-all while everything went up in fmes.

  I clenched my fists, my nails digging into my palms.

  C’mon, dude. Think. You’ve gotta think your way outta this mess.

  …Yeah, my mind had officially checked out by that point. Every time I tried to come up with something, I just kept circling back to the same thought: You’re useless.

  Then I heard it—a shout. Distant, but loud enough to cut through all the noise and chaos.

  My head snapped up, my heartbeat speeding up. It wasn’t coming from Daisuke and Reaper’s direction—it was further out. Somewhere behind the wrecked buildings.

  I hesitated, gncing back toward the destruction. The smart thing to do? Stay put. But that shout... something about it didn’t let me stay frozen. It sounded desperate, like someone barely hanging on.

  Before I could talk myself out of it, my legs were moving.

  I followed the sound, weaving through debris and smoke, until I found them.

  It was a kid I vaguely recognized. One of the scary ones who’d gotten busted for smoking in the bathrooms st week. Liu something? Katoru? Whatever. I didn’t know his name, but I knew the look on his face—like someone who’d been through hell and barely made it out.

  He was slumped against the wall of a narrow alley, his face pale as a sheet, his body shaking like a leaf in a storm. His shirt was soaked in blood and sweat, and honestly, he looked like he’d been hit by a train.

  Next to him was... well, something. A dark, flickering shadow. Like a ghost, but not the kind you see in movies. This one felt wrong—twisted, and dangerous in a way I couldn’t quite expin. It was hunched over, its shape barely holding together, but even like that, I felt a pit open in my stomach. It was the same kind of energy I’d felt from Daisuke.

  I skidded to a stop, my eyes darting between Liu and the shadow thing. “What the hell—what’s happening to you?”

  Liu’s head lifted at the sound of my voice, his bloodshot eyes locking onto mine.

  “Qui...ck,” he croaked.

  My gut twisted. I ran to his side, crouching down. “Dude, what’s going on? Are you dying? Do I call for help? What do I do?”

  The shadow thing groaned, its voice weird and distorted, like it was coming from the bottom of a well.

  “Liu and I... need to... get to... Daisuke.”

  Daisuke? I stared at the shadow, then back at Liu. Was this thing... talking for him?

  “No way,” I blurted. “You’re not serious, are you? You wanna go to Daisuke? Like, the dude who’s currently leveling half the city?”

  Liu’s hand twitched, grabbing weakly at my arm. “Listen, dumbass,” he muttered, his voice rough but gaining a little strength. “We... don’t have a choice.”

  I blinked. Did this guy just call me a dumbass while he was actively bleeding out? “You’ve gotta be kidding me. Daisuke’s gone full psycho. You haven’t seen him—you’d get obliterated in two seconds ft.”

  His grip tightened, surprising me. For someone who looked like they were on death’s door, he was weirdly strong.

  “We don’t... have time,” Liu rasped, his voice cracking. “If you don’t... take us... we’re dead anyway.”

  The shadow groaned again, its voice filled with raw desperation. “Help... us...”

  I hesitated. Every instinct I had was screaming at me to walk away. To tell them they were crazy and leave them here. Taking them to Daisuke was practically a suicide mission.

  But the look in Liu’s eyes stopped me cold.

  There was something there—something that wasn’t just desperation or fear. It was determination. Pure, unshakable resolve. Whatever his reasons, whatever his pn, he’d already made up his mind.

  I let out a long, frustrated sigh, running a hand through my hair. “Fine,” I muttered. “But if we die, I’m haunting your ass.”

  Liu’s lips twitched into the faintest smirk. “Fair... enough.”

  Liu was way lighter than I expected. I slung him onto my back, trying to keep him steady. He was all limp and shaky, like a soda bottle someone had shaken too hard but hadn’t cracked open yet. And that weird shadow-creature of his stuck close behind us, its body flickering and pulsing like it could break apart any second. The thing gave me the creeps, but I tried to focus.

  “Hold on,” I muttered, more to myself than to him, as I broke into a sprint.

  Everything around us was a blur of ash and rubble as I ran. My legs burned, but I pushed harder, weaving through all the wreckage like my life depended on it—because it probably did. The air got thicker and hotter with every step, that suffocating pressure that could only mean we were getting closer to Daisuke. The sounds of their fight were louder now, like the world’s most violent thunderstorm was just ahead: explosions, grinding metal, earth-shaking booms.

  “What’s the pn here?” I yelled over my shoulder, trying to keep my voice steady while dodging what looked like the remains of someone’s roof. “You wanna get closer to him? That’s your big idea? Seriously, what the hell do you think you’re gonna do?!”

  For a second, I thought he wouldn’t answer. But then, his voice rasped in my ear, quiet but steady.

  “He’s still in there,” Liu said, his words broken up by shallow breaths. “No matter what he’s done… no matter what he’s become… he’s still Daisuke. And I gotta remind him of that… after I beat the living shit outta him.”

  I almost tripped right there. “You’re kidding me, right?” I snapped, shaking my head. “Dude, he’s gone. Like, completely gone. You didn’t see what he did to us. You’re gonna remind him by what? Getting yourself killed?”

  Liu didn’t respond. Didn’t argue. He just stayed quiet, his grip on my shoulder tightening.

  And I don’t know—maybe it was the way he said it. Or maybe it was just how his voice sounded, like he’d already made peace with the fact that this whole thing was insane. But something about it made me shut up and keep moving.

  We were close now. Too close, probably. The fshes of light were blinding, the explosions so loud I could feel them in my ribs. I skidded to a stop just outside what looked like the epicenter of all the chaos. My lungs burned as I gasped for air, and I felt Liu start to slip off my back.

  “This is it,” he wheezed, sliding to the ground.

  I stared at him, still trying to catch my breath. “You’re genuinely crazy,” I muttered. “You know that, right?”

  He just gave me this weak smile, and I got the feeling it wasn’t the first time somebody’d called him that.

  “Tainted,” Liu rasped, tilting his head toward the shadow-thing.

  At first, it didn’t respond. It just kind of hovered there, its weird, flickering form locking into this tight, coiled-up shape like it was bracing for something big. Then, like it’d been waiting for Liu to speak, it sprang to life. Its twisted, shadowy limbs reached out, grabbing Liu with this weird kind of gentleness that didn’t match how terrifying it looked.

  And then—out of nowhere—it hurled him into the air.

  “What the hell?!” I yelled, taking a step forward, but the battlefield swallowed my voice.

  Liu shot up like a rocket, his body a tiny speck against the chaos in front of us. Daisuke and Reaper didn’t even notice him at first—they were still trying to tear each other apart, their blows ripping through buildings like they were made of jenga blocks. For a second, I thought Liu was gonna get vaporized before he even got close.

  And then, it happened.

  Liu let it all out.

  The energy—or whatever the hell it was—that had been eating him alive this whole time exploded outward in a fsh so bright I had to shield my eyes. When I looked back, it wasn’t just light anymore. It was this swirling, inky darkness, and it was all getting sucked into Tainted.

  The thing screeched, this bone-rattling noise that wasn’t pain—it was triumph. The energy engulfed it, warping its already freaky body. Its limbs stretched, twisting into these jagged, razor-sharp shapes. Its shadowy body grew taller and bulkier, its edges so sharp they looked like they could cut through steel. Eyes—dozens of them—opened all over it, glowing with this eerie, otherworldly light.

  And at the center of all of it, barely visible but still there, was Liu.

  He wasn’t just with the thing anymore—he was inside it, controlling it, wearing it like some kind of twisted armor.

  He’d turned himself into another freaking nightmare.

  “Hey, buddy!” Liu’s voice boomed, sounding pretty rejuvinated and amplified by the creature’s monstrous size. It wasn’t just him talking—it was him and Tainted, their voices overpping like some kind of unholy choir. “How about we get that rematch in?!”

  Before I could even process what I was seeing, the nightmare-Tainted lunged.

  Its massive, warped fist shot out like a wrecking ball, smming straight into Daisuke with this earth-shattering CRUNCH.

  Daisuke didn’t just stumble back—he flew. His body shot through the air like a missile, crashing through what was left of a skyscraper before disappearing into the distance. The impact was so loud it made my ears ring, and a cloud of smoke rose where he nded, way out of sight.

  For a second, everything went still. Even Reaper stopped, mid-swing, to watch the aftermath.

  Then, the nightmare-Tainted let out this guttural roar that shook the ground beneath me. It didn’t hesitate, didn’t even stop to check the damage—it just charged, its massive limbs propelling it toward where Daisuke had nded.

  It didn’t even look back.

  I thought Reaper would follow. I mean, that was their whole deal, wasn’t it? Their beef with Daisuke had taken everything to the next level in the first pce. They’d been going at it like gods or whatever, wrecking everything in their path. But the second the nightmare-Tainted unched itself after Daisuke, Reaper just… stopped.

  They froze in pce, perfectly still, like a damn statue. Their head tilted slightly, like they were tuning into some freaky station the rest of us couldn’t hear.

  Then they bolted.

  “Wait—what?!” I blurted, my voice cracking as I watched them shoot off like a bullet… in the opposite direction.

  Not toward Daisuke. Not after Liu and his monster. No, they were hauling ass somewhere else entirely.

  “The others,” I whispered, and my stomach twisted into knots.

  Reaper didn’t move like someone running for their life or even someone chasing after a moving target. No, it was worse. They ran like they knew exactly what they were doing—like they had some exact, horrible pn in mind and weren’t wasting a single second getting to it.

  It hit me like a hammer. Whatever they were up to? It was bad. Bad enough to make my body react before my brain could catch up.

  My legs just went, sprinting after them like I didn’t care about the burn in my muscles or the pounding in my chest. All I could feel was this growing, suffocating dread, the kind that made it hard to breathe, hard to think.

  “What the hell are you up to, Reaper?” I muttered, my voice raw, my teeth gritted. My brain was spinning, trying to make sense of it. They’d been so ser-focused on Daisuke—hell, they’d practically been frothing at the mouth to put him down, judging by the ferocity of their fighting.

  And now, they’d just dropped it. Dropped him.

  That didn’t sit right. None of it did.

  I tore through the wreckage, the battlefield around me buzzing with leftover energy that made the hair on my arms stand on end. The air still felt heavy, but something about it was different now.

  That was when I saw them.

  Arthur and Rusuban were still duking it out in the distance. Rusuban zipped around on some concrete ptform he was levitating with those creepy vines of his, shooting attacks at Arthur like it was target practice. Arthur was barely holding his ground, ducking and weaving to avoid getting turned into mulch.

  And of course, the 2nd-year-rep was cackling like a total psycho while Arthur struggled to keep up.

  But Reaper - Reaper was heading straight for them.

  My gut sank.

  I didn’t know what I expected Reaper to do when they got there. Maybe take a shot at Kinoko for being an annoying little shit. Maybe blow everyone up just because they could.

  But whatever I thought was gonna happen, it wasn’t this.

  The closer I got, the worse that oppressive, suffocating feeling became. It pressed down on me harder with every step, heavier than anything I’d felt before—even heavier than Daisuke’s crazy energy. And that was when it hit me like a brick to the face.

  All this time, that feeling hadn't been Daisuke. It hadn't even been Liu.

  It was coming from Reaper.

  My throat tightened.

  They weren’t even bothering to be subtle. No sneaky movements, no pying coy. They were making a straight shot for Kinoko and Arthur’s fight, and the way they moved was freaking terrifying – way too damn calcuted.

  I gritted my teeth and pushed harder, ignoring the fire in my legs, ignoring the way my lungs screamed for air. I had to stop them. I didn’t know how, I didn’t know what I’d even do if I caught up, but I couldn’t let them get there first.

  The glow started next. Faint at first, just a flicker of green in the edges of their hood. But as I got closer, it grew brighter, more intense, until it was spilling out of them like they couldn’t keep it contained anymore.

  It felt wrong. That glow—whatever it was—felt like poison, like something that was going to ruin everything the second it was let loose.

  “Reaper!” I yelled, even though I knew they wouldn’t stop. “What the hell are you doing?!”

  No response. They just kept moving, faster than I could ever hope to match, their feet barely touching the ground as they darted between the wreckage.

  The worst part was, deep down, I already knew. I didn’t know the details, didn’t know the why or the how, but some instinct in me knew.

  I was too te.